About Us
Connect Outdoors actually began as a love story, that brought two people together who had the same mission and passion burning in their hearts….
Our story began in March 2020, yep that’s right when COVID hit. Angela was at Arise, (A Bible Missionary Training School) which was forced to shut down. Meanwhile Kris’s work dried up. Angela chose to stay in Australia. During this time, Kris got to catch up with sister, who told him all about this girl, Angela Boothby, who did outdoor Education! Kris’ sister, Sharri-lynne, had taken the position of co-host on the Breakfast show with Pastor Lyle. She is studying to be a teacher and after lamenting the current trends of education and a desire to get the kids outside more. Pastor Lyle said, “you need to talk to Ange!” The girls connected in early August and were excited to share ideas. Kris came to see his sister soon after this talk.
After a drawn out process of a couple of weeks of Kris trying to connect with Angela, with the simple honest reason of networking in the SDA outdoor education world, they finally landed a phone call September 10, 2020; the day after Angela blew out her knee. They had an hour-long conversation about taking kids outside and the methods they were using and that was it or so they thought. In the process of trying to connect with Angela, from Aug to Sep, Kris had listened to all of Angela’s Audioverse presentations and knew all about her love of connecting nature to Scripture verses. And that afternoon after their first and only phone call, he had all sorts of close nature encounters. So he sent some photos across, just because he thought she would enjoy them with being stranded with her busted knee. While there is some discrepancy about who initiated the next conversation, conversations continued nonetheless. The texting went on for several months, lots of questions and ideas about living the outdoor life were exchanged. At the end of November, Angie was very interested in the relationship but could not tell what Kris was thinking. So after some open text messages, she asked him the big question, “What is your intent with this relationship?” He said he felt like God had asked him to be encouraging and he was just looking for friendship. After that the text messaging came to a stop.
Angie was in Virginia for Christmas. She was alone because everyone had gone to pick up her Grandad from hospital. She felt impressed to go and look at her phone which had not been working and was in another room. Lo, and behold, Kris was calling! Why was he calling, they hadn’t texted in weeks! And they had only talked on the phone once but she was alone on Christmas Day, so why not?
They talked for 2 hours about life, Outdoors, God, etc. And then finally Kris said, “I’ve been thinking and praying a lot about your intent question.” Angie thought, “What?! That was a month ago, I thought it was over and done.” But she said out loud….ok…
And Kris said, “If you are still interested, then I’m willing to be in a committed relationship with you.” Angie was in shock! Willing to move to America? Willing to talk on the phone! But yes, Kris was committed, completely. He applied for his visa a month later. He through many sets of miracles (more to the story later) made it to America on May 19! They have enjoyed mission trips and traveling and doing ministry together ever since!
Kris and Angie were engaged on August 30, 2021, a little shy of a year since their first phone call. God certainly worked in mysterious and wondrous ways! And never a day goes by that they don’t thank God for the gift of each other and the gift of being together.
“The scenes upon which the eye daily rests were all connected with some spiritual truth, so that nature is clothed with the parables of the Master.”
~ Ellen White, Christ’s Object Lessons
Contact us.
letsconnectoutdoors@gmail.com
(269) 615-6027