He invited me for drinks—Julie and Mark’s Kuhingira

By Robert K James

Sometime in January this year, Mark invited his friend Julie for drinks. What Julie didn’t know is that Mark was planning to let her in on a big secret—that he had feelings for her. According to the bride, she and he were longtime friends having studied together.

“We were friends but it looks like he had feelings for me already and one time, he invited me for a drink as usual, and boom he told me how he was interested and wanted to take the friendship to the next level,” Julie told Mikolo.

But for Mark, things didn’t go according to plan, because it was a flat out rejection when he opened up to Julie about his feelings.

“I rejected him because I was seeing someone then, but as he said ‘God had talked to him about me’. He kept around as a good friend,” she recounted.

I’m surprised he even hang around, having been sent to the cold caves of the “friend zone”, because, for any man, the only thing that hurts more than a punch in the gut is a rejection. And a rejection coming from a friend hits differently as compared to one coming from a strange or a mere acquaintance.

But as Julie puts it, “in fact, we even became closer than before.”

You know how God works in mysterious ways!!! Somehow, Julie and her then boyfriend parted ways and while she took some time off, she “prayed about it and asked God about Mark and God confirmed that he was actually the right man” for her.

That’s when she accepted him as more than just a friend. They dated for a few months and boom, Mark proposed.

“He was ready. So he set the date…because I had told him I wasn’t ready to waste more time so he’s got to be serious and he showed me how serious he was,” Julie added.

And on Saturday 29th August 2020, Kyomuhendo Julie and Beegira Mark traditionally got hitched at a successful kuhingira ceremony at her parents’ home in Mbarara.