When God Asks You to Take a Risk: An Interview with Salomé & Leon

Salomé and Leon Roat are the founders of Becoming the One. Here is an up-close look at their unique love story that required them to take risks—bigger risks than most couples face. Sometimes God asks two people to step out and go on a huge adventure with Him.

BTO: How did the two of you meet?

Leon: We met at a spiritual gifts conference in Ecuador. We were there praying for people, and Salomé was one of the translators. Somehow our eyes met. The last night, I was praying for her mom and brother, and somewhere in there we met and exchanged phone numbers and addresses. We started writing back and forth after the conference. I wrote her a letter in English and in Spanish telling her I thought she was cute.

BTO: What obstacles did you have to overcome so you could be together?

Leon: We were two oceans apart. It takes you eleven hours, just flying time, to fly to Ecuador. That’s a bit of an obstacle. Second, it was super expensive to do phone calls back then. We didn’t have the internet and things like that, so we had to write back and forth all the time. Sometimes we had to wait two weeks or more before we’d get a letter because Ecuador’s mail was slow.

Just being so far apart—that’s an obstacle, because we couldn’t be together with each other face to face.

Salomé: I was praying that I would meet the right guy, and I think an obstacle for me was really understanding that’s what God was saying—that Leon was it for me. I didn’t want to settle for anything else but God’s will. My attitude was, “It’s got to be from You, Lord, and I’ll just follow what You want.”

The other obstacle, which is kind of funny, is that I thought I really liked this other guy. I thought I was in love with him.

Leon: What? I’ve never heard this.

Salomé: I had a little crush on him—

Leon: You’re killing me here!

Salomé: —and it lasted a while. When I met Leon, I was still thinking of this other guy. This goes back to trusting the Lord because I felt like I was in love with the other guy. That was an obstacle God had to deal with. At one point, I really had to listen to Him and say, “I just give all of this to You, Lord. Please show me clearly that this is from You.”

Leon and I started writing back and forth, and in one of the letters, he asked me, “Hey, can I come visit you?” He gave me three dates: February, April, or August. I was like, “Ahhh! Let’s do it in August. Let’s wait a little longer!” I was young and not ready, and I just really wanted to make sure this was from God.

But once Leon came to Ecuador, I remember going to pick him up with my mom, and it was just wonderful. I was looking at him in his eyes, and there was a definite connection there. This happened about a year and a half after we met, that we got to see each other again.

We have a super sweet story about those first days of courting. I could tell that he liked me from the beginning. The way he loooooked at me. I remember thinking, Oh my goodness. I have this amazing, handsome guy—

Leon: All true.

Salomé: —who loves the Lord, and here I have no idea. I don’t know what to do, what I’m feeling, or anything. So I started praying a lot. I asked my mom, my family, and some of my Christian friends to pray for me. I didn’t want to hurt this wonderful man’s feelings, and I just wanted to do God’s will. “If this is from You, God, just show me what Your will is for me.” I was hoping this was from God, but I was very scared. Fear was another obstacle, but God in His mercy delivered me and did something wonderful.

BTO: What did the Lord teach you while you were still single?

Leon: I learned patience over all those years. I didn’t have a girlfriend for about eight years, from age 20 until age 27, when I met Salomé. Even then, we were just friends, so it was closer to nine years. I did learn that singleness is always worth the wait. In other relationships, I learned they weren’t what God had for me—He had something way better! It was hard to go through the different heartaches I went through to make that discovery, but when you’re on the other end of it and you’re married to Miss Wonderful, it makes it all worth it.

Salomé: I loved God from an early age, and I knew He loved me, but I also knew as a young woman that I wanted to have a good marriage—because of my parents’ marriage, which was not the greatest. In my case, waiting wasn’t that long, but it was God’s timing. For some, it takes longer, and for others, it isn’t that long. These are things we don’t understand, but I’m thankful. Leon had to wait several years to marry me, but I think what I learned through singleness is to really trust in God. To have my total, undivided attention on Him and to focus on loving Jesus first.

BTO: What risks did you have to take in dating?

Leon: I had to fly all the way to Ecuador. I remember the plane landing and asking myself, What am I doing here? You have to put yourself out there.

We did a lot with her family in the beginning, so I could get to know her a little bit in her family setting. It’s better to go out with people in groups and get to know the person that way before you really put yourself out there and say, “I want to go out on an official date.”

Just ask God, “What do You see in this relationship?” Put it before Him first, even while you’re just friends and you’re in a group. I think that’s the healthiest way to go about it. If God gives you the go-ahead, then you can do more of the exclusive, one-on-one type of dating.

Salomé: During the process of dating, Leon wanted me to come visit him here in the United States and know how life was here. I think that was important. In a way, it was a risk for me because I had to come all the way here. My mom came with me, which was really sweet, but I knew it was important and it meant a lot to Leon, to have me come. To find out how his life was, to get to know him more, to get to know his family.

For our families, I think the risk was to trust us, as adults, and encourage us to know each other more. Leon’s mom wanted us to wait a little while longer, because she wanted me to finish my studies in law. It was important to her, and I think it was really neat that Leon honored his mom. That helped me also to mature. Sometimes I laugh because I was ready to marry Leon earlier. Once I knew—

Leon: Of course you were!

Salomé: —this was God’s will, why wait? I don’t know if that’s “taking a risk,” but it was taking the risk of learning to be patient and just waiting. A reverse kind of risk.

While I was visiting him, there were a few weeks when I wasn’t 100 percent sure. It was a little bit scary just thinking, Okay, this really means I’m going to have to live here, and I’m going to leave my family behind. This will become my country. You start thinking more about the big marriage questions. I knew God wanted it, but I started thinking for real. “This is reality. Is this what I want?”

I took the risk to trust God, that this was an amazing man I was in love with and it was God’s will.

Take the risk of trusting God even if it seems scary—that’s a big risk. But even if it feels out of your comfort zone, if God is in it, it’s going to be good.

Check out a few of our other love-story interviews:

For more information on sex, marriage, and finding the person who is right for you, get a copy of Becoming the One by Salomé Roat. Click here to learn more. The book is also available in Spanish.

Becoming the OneApril 7, 2021Comment