You never know where you’re going to meet the love of your life. For Austin Wesson and Rebekah Bouma, it was on separate Christian mission trips in Austin’s home country of South Africa.
Rachel Byker Bouma
The two 19-year-olds met in 2017 while serving, and very quickly knew they’d met “the one.” After spending much of their relationship FaceTiming, Austin popped the question, and the young missionaries planned a small wedding.
On Friday, August 4, 2017, they tied the knot at a U.S. courthouse in Kansas, with plans to have a bigger celebration with friends and family later that year.
Rachel Byker Bouma
“They were very much in love,” John Bouma, Rebekah’s dad, said of the new couple. “There was no doubt whatsoever that their love was the real thing.”
On Saturday, less than 24 hours after making their marriage official, the newlyweds were in a horrific car accident in which they lost control of the truck they were driving, struck an embankment and crashed into a tree just outside of Clearwater, Kansas.
