For some reason, Kim-Erin Riley felt she needed to move from Honolulu to California.

So in February 2001, she packed up her belongings, quit her job, ditched her classes and moved to Huntington Beach.

She didn't have a job lined up or a place to stay. But Riley did have a lot of faith.

"Basically, I really felt like God wanted me to move there," said Riley, now 31, a 1993 graduate of Kaiser High School. "I knew I had to move."

Soon after arriving, Riley hooked up with some friends, got an apartment, found a job at a hotel and joined Hope Chapel Huntington Beach.

Life was good.

A few months after moving to Huntington Beach, Riley had a vision. In it, she saw a guy playing a guitar to the right of the stage at church. She knew this guy was going to be her husband.

So when she walked into church one Friday night in 2003, she did a double take. There, standing to the right of the stage — "where no one stands," she said — was Jeremiah Justice. And he was playing a guitar.

"I knew immediately I was going to marry him," Riley said, laughing. "I was in shock. I couldn't believe it."

Riley and Justice had met before.

For a few months, Justice had been visiting Hope Chapel Huntington Beach from his hometown in Beaumont, Calif., where he attended the affiliate Beaumont Foursquare Church.

He liked this church's youth programs and felt a connection to the other twentysomethings who attended.

But Riley never had any romantic interest in him until that Friday night.

"That was the first time I had really set my eyes on him and had really seen him," she said.

Justice was visiting so often, he quickly became close friends with the younger membership, which included Riley.

The two became fast friends. But knowing that Justice wasn't planning to move to Huntington Beach anytime soon, Riley didn't pursue anything more than friendship.

"I marked him off my life," she said.

She didn't know, however, that Justice had been planning to move to Huntington Beach. He had even asked for a transfer from his company.

"Then the Lord opened a door for me," said Justice, now 28.

In June 2003, his company agreed to move him to Huntington Beach. The first person he told was Riley.

"I was just standing there, shocked," she said. "I felt it in my heart. I thought, 'This is going to happen whether he knows it or not.' "

Though she had grown to really like him over the course of their friendship, Riley wasn't sure a relationship would work out. She figured they didn't have much in common.

But after he moved to Huntington Beach, the two starting spending more time together, going to church events and driving around town to look at houses.

Over that summer, Riley discovered they actually had a lot in common, including a commitment to their faith and a love for music.

"We had such a connection," Riley said.

But Justice wasn't thinking about a relationship at the time.

"I was just so excited to be there," he said. "I was having such a great time. I didn't really think about (dating). I wasn't looking for anything. Then it kinda hit me one day. I was waking up thinking about her."

On Sept. 28, 2003, Justice met Riley at a birthday party. She was exhausted, having spent the entire day in meetings and planning an event at church.

Justice asked Riley if they could go for a walk.

Drained from a long day, Riley passed on the invitation.

So he decided to just spill his feelings: He asked her if she wanted to date him.

"I was like, 'Finally!' " Riley said.

For the next year, they saw each other nearly every day. (They lived just half a mile apart.) They went to church events, saw movies, hung out with friends and walked around their neighborhood.

But one thing they never did: kiss. They were saving that for marriage.

"We both decided that it would be something awesome to look forward to on our wedding day," Riley said. "And once that was decided, it was actually pretty easy to stick to it. Sure, we wanted to kiss, but we knew that it would be so special if we saved it for our big day."

Everything was going well until December 2004. Justice had been feeling they were too focused on each other and not on their faith.

They talked about it and decided together that they needed to reprioritize. So they ended the relationship.

"It was so hard," Riley said, "but I knew it needed to happen."

For the next five months, though they went to the same church and shared friends, they barely spoke to each other.

Riley figured it was over for good.

But in August 2005 Justice approached Riley and asked if they could talk, this time with their pastor.

Riley was confused.

"We're not talking and all of a sudden he wants to sit down and talk with me — and with our pastor," Riley said. "I'm thinking he's going to say, 'Can you go to another church?' Seriously, I had no clue."

Instead, Justice wanted to get back together. He just needed to figure out if this was the right thing to do.

It turned out that they both wanted to be together. That meeting was the turning point in their relationship.

"There was (now) a foundation that wasn't going to be shaken," said Riley, who works as an office manager for Vybe Inc. and runs her own business, Bullfrogs and Butterflies Party Planners. "We both knew God took us away from each other ... but we knew now where our priorities were."

Four months later Justice planned a Duffy boat ride and dinner in Newport Beach. When the fog rolled in, the boat ride was canceled, but his plan to propose wasn't.

He got down on both knees at her apartment, pulled out an engagement ring and said, "The only thing I want for Christmas is you."

They celebrated with dinner at a Thai restaurant in Newport Beach.

The couple was married on April 23, 2006 — four months after the proposal — at the Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach. About 200 guests attended.

It was on that night Riley and Justice finally kissed.

"It was incredible," Riley gushed.

Life really changed for the couple after the wedding.

After their honeymoon to Hawai'i, Justice took a full-time job as a youth pastor at their church — and he moved into her one-bedroom apartment.

"It's been awesome," Riley said. "It's funny to have two people who have lived on their own for so long come together and make a house. But it's been really neat."

They hope to start a family in the next couple of years. Right now, though, they enjoy watching the youth group at their church grow. And they look forward to climbing into bed together every night.

That's been the highlight of marriage so far.

"I love having my wife with me all night," Justice said.

Reach Catherine E. Toth at ctoth@honoluluadvertiser.com.