9/20/24

Gabe and Jen met while serving in the preschool room at The House Fort Worth Church.

At this time, Jen had been praying for a co-lead to lead a house group with at the church and Gabe was being forced to lead an house group, but didn’t want to do one without a co-lead. On Wednesday nights, Gabe served in the pre-teen ministry and Jen served in youth ministry. After Wednesday service, the two were invited with a group of friends to go to Chipotle. Jason Dimas began praying over Jen while friends layed hands on her and he began prophetically speaking over her- reminding her of promises God had given her as a child. He prophesied of a healthy house group for the season and prayed for an “Aaron”-like figure to come along side of her in this season- both relationship wise and as a small group leader. After the prayer was over, he automatically looked up at Gabe and asked if he was still looking for a co-lead. Both of us were too awkward to dispute. We prayed over the season- both together and separate- and felt God’s hand over it, so we agreed to start the house group for that upcoming season.

Just before Gabe moved into his house, he invited a group of people over to pray and anoint it. Jen was only invited as he felt he had too because she was his co-lead. The night started with everyone in a circle praying. When Jen began to pray, he looked up in shock. This was the first time he was able to see Jen act with any voice of authority and prophetic notion. He would later not that that moment was the exact point He began to admire her relationship with the Lord.

Gabe continued to invite Jen to numerous things in group settings. One night, he invited her to bowling and a late night worship session at the lake near his mom’s house with some friends. It was FREEZING. As she went to her car, she grabbed the only blanket she had- a tiny throw blanket that she and Gabe ended up sharing. As she layed on the grass with Gabe on one side of her and a guitar playing in the background, worship music played and they began talking about what they hoped for the group. She could already tell that something was different and started falling for Gabe’s heart for ministry and willingness to say Yes to God’s calling for his life.

Jen had ran a bad call at work and was put on administrative leave. At this point she had severe anxiety attacks. When Gabe found out, he came over with some of her work friends, held her on the couch, prayed, and spoke truth over her until the anxiety attacks stopped. This was the first time she had slept in days.

Jen walks in with charcuterie board supplies as the house is still an active construction zone. While Gabe and his dad are finishing with the last piece of crown molding, Jen finishes the charcuterie board. About 30 seconds later, the doorbell rings and the first people enter. From the very start, there was peace in that house- as if that was exactly where we needed to be in that moment. We saw people set free and find community for the first time in their adult lives that night. Afterwards, as they cleaned up Gabe grabbed Jen and began dancing through the kitchen. That’s when Jen knew.

Things had ramped up to the point that we both knew we liked each other and wanted to pursue each other. What made this difficult was that Jen was a ministry intern through the church and Gabe was a Team Lead for outreach ministry on top of us both leading a house group together- we were very much unsure if we were even allowed to date. Gabe told Jen that it wouldn’t work out one night as she was late-night-fishing and she agreed to stay friends. As Jen left the lake, Gabe knew he messed up. He spoke to staff members the next day who saw the situation coming from a mile away, were excited to see the official start of the relationship, and encouraged him to pursue her. After the house group that week, they talked and agreed to start dating for three weeks without any outside input from all but a select handful of people. After the first official date, Jen told her family over the phone, “I think I just had dinner with my future husband.” They became official only a few days after that- nowhere close to the three weeks they said they needed.