Missions trip leads to love, matrimony

Twenty-year-old Byron Comeens, a member of First Baptist Church, Double Springs, had been participating in missions trips with Winston Baptist Association since he was 13. So when he left for a construction trip to Corbin, Ky., in July 2005, he knew what to expect.
  
Or so he thought. Comeens never expected he would meet his bride.
  
“I was going to Kentucky. I definitely wasn’t thinking about a girlfriend, much less a wife,” Comeens said.
  
But he met Heather Parks, a member of Faith Baptist Church, Corbin, Ky., while he was there to help construct the church’s new building. 
  
Now, on June 9, the two will exchange vows in the church that Comeens helped construct.
  
“Every time somebody asks me about me and Heather, I just remember how that one week I went to work for God and He overwhelmed me with blessings,” Comeens said.
  
He vividly remembers the first time he saw Parks.
  
“I first saw Heather in church on Sunday morning,” Comeens recalled. “She got up to find a Bible. Later on, the pastor was talking to the young people, and he asked all those who were single to raise their hands and she did.” 
  
The two officially met that Sunday afternoon.  
  
Parks was working as a lifeguard that summer. The week Comeens was in town, however, was filled with rain, so she spent much of her time at the church. 
  
“If it hadn’t rained, I would have had to work all day,” Parks said. “Luckily it did and I went to the church every day so I could see him.”
  
Al Hood, director of missions for Winston Association, said watching the romance blossom was a joy for the entire missions team.
  
“On every trip, we always have a couple of young boys and girls and there will be a few sparks that fly. You know how young love is,” he said. “But this one was sort of interesting in that it wasn’t one of those that lasts for a week and then ‘Well, it was nice knowing you’ kind of things.”
  
Comeens and Parks have not failed to speak to one another a single day since the trip. He made the 400-mile journey back to see her the following August — the first of many trips. In the summer of 2006, she moved to Alabama for a summer job and to spend more time with him. 
  
That summer, the two traveled to Macon, Ga., on another missions trip with Winston Association. On Aug. 12, 2006, Comeens proposed.
  
Following the wedding, the couple plans to reside in London, Ky.
  
The two have said that although they will probably not have the opportunity to participate in a summer missions trip this year, they plan to get involved in trips for many years to come.
  
“I think that says a lot about their commitment to Christ,” Hood said. “Sometimes when people get married, they will say they just don’t have the time for these trips. 
  
“This commitment shows a legacy.”