Our Story
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Our Story
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While one could argue that our story began before the foundation of time, this retelling will begin a few years ago when Josiah’s family began attending Anna Lise’s college church. While Josiah was away at Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, his parents and Anna Lise met and got to know one another. Josiah's dad soon became one of Anna Lise's elders, and his mom became a sweet friend.
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Josiah and Anna Lise eventually met one another and began to see each other every once in a while whenever Josiah drove home for the weekend or for breaks. By the end of 2023, Anna Lise's thoughtfulness, spiritual mindedness, and heart for ministry had caught Josiah's eye. They began dating long-distance, going out whenever Josiah drove to Durham or Anna Lise to Winston Salem and talking on the phone in the meantime. Anna Lise was impressed by Josiah's love for the Lord, his investment in the people around him, and his gentle and kind spirit. In May, they celebrated Josiah’s graduation from college, and he moved back to Durham for good.
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Over the summer, they stopped counting dates and began to just invite each other into normal life: making dinner, carpooling literally everywhere, fellowshipping with friends, going for walks, reading and singing, taking trips to Charlotte, sidewalk counseling, etc. They discovered they shared the same insatiable curiosity and love of beauty. Josiah and Anna Lise find beauty and interest in most any topic, equally delighted by conversation about flowers, the sky, epic film scores, frogs, quantum dots, ventricular septal defects, or reflection high-energy electron diffraction. Both love learning what the other is learning: Josiah frequently receiving crash courses in obscure congenital cardiology, and Anna Lise grasping at a basic understanding of quantum physics. Josiah and Anna Lise discovered how alike they are in many ways and how opposite and thus complementary they are in others as their relationship continued to grow.
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Their shared love for the things of earth is fueled by their love for the things of God. As iron sharpens iron, Josiah and Anna Lise sharpened each other as they both grew in grace this year and recognized their mutual love for the Lord and desire for life-long service to him. Josiah joined Anna Lise as a pro-life sidewalk counselor outside the Chapel Hill Planned Parenthood, and Josiah's presence and leadership grew Anna Lise's service there too. They doubled down on fellowship, spending many evenings with church friends, young and old. During this time as well, Josiah helped Anna Lise evaluate her desire to return to South Sudan for a time. They both decided to move forward with the trip, with some apprehension about what long long long distance dating without reliable internet would look like.
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As the Lord would have it, their time apart grew them ever closer together, and they enjoyed some of the sweetest times of growth in their relationship during those long months. The two love birds kept the carrier pigeons quite busy ferrying voice messages of ever-increasing length across the Atlantic Ocean. Both Josiah and Anna Lise kept some sort of journal during this time, and both of them individually wrote that they loved one another and were resolved to marry when the time was right. Back at home, Josiah continued to invest in the McGowan family while Anna Lise was away, even setting up a dinner date with Anna Lise's parents and Maxim, halfway in between Charlotte and Durham.
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After Anna Lise arrived safely home, they enjoyed the renewed time together and supported each other through intense moments in Josiah’s graduate school and Anna Lise beginning her first “real adult” job. Since Josiah’s PhD program is at Duke University and Anna Lise works at Duke Children’s Hospital, the two enjoyed being in close physical proximity during the day, often carpooling to work together, meeting up for a quick walk at Duke Pond after work, or just walking back to their respective cars together.
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Josiah spent Thanksgiving with Anna Lise’s extended family, and during this week he asked Anna Lise’s dad for her hand in marriage, which he joyfully offered. A few weeks later, Josiah and Anna Lise were on a walk in the woods when Josiah found a secluded spot to propose. Anna Lise said yes! Another couple on a walk in the woods, John and Phyllis, witnessed the proposal and helped celebrate by taking pictures and giving hugs. They had been married for 46 years and told the happy couple that they would love it too.
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As they walked together through the rest of the wintery woods, they dreamed and spoke of their future together. Anna Lise was glad to finally ask Josiah the wedding planning questions she had been stuffing down for weeks. They emerged from the woods to find Josiah’s dad waiting to be the first one to congratulate the couple and pray for their expected union.
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From Josiah and Anna Lise:
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As we look back on the first 23 years of our life and look ahead to many more together if the Lord wills, we are profoundly grateful for God’s good providence in bringing us together through many different decisions and circumstances. We would like to thank our faithful families and especially our parents for their wise counsel and preparation for our life serving the Lord together. Thank you also to our churches whom we love so dearly: Resurrection OPC (the church that raised Anna Lise), Pilgrim OPC and Covenant of Grace ARP (the churches that raised Josiah), and First RPC, the church that ushered in our adulthood and brought us together. We are so thankful for each one of you who loves us, including all who are not able to come to be a witnesses to our covenant of marriage. Our love story is truly a tapestry of God’s providence and God's love for us, and as we remember what God has done for us in our youth and look ahead to many years together if the Lord wills, we proclaim with the psalmist, “My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.” Psalm 71:15-18