I met Lauren in the fall of 2023, when I had the privilege of serving as her Disciple Making Team leader through our church, Heritage Baptist. From the very beginning, I admired her character and her deep understanding of the gospel. At the time, there was no romantic interest, only a quiet appreciation and respect. Looking back, it is clear that the Lord was simply working in His perfect timing. About a year later, while I was in Manchester, New Hampshire on a Liberty recruiting trip, I received a message from our church’s missions pastor. He had just finished Lauren’s membership interview and told me it was one of the most impressive interviews he had ever had. Then he asked, very directly, if I had any interest in taking her out. I responded that it did not seem like the right season for me. Even so, in the months that followed, I found myself thinking about her more often than I expected. In January 2025, I began praying every day at five o’clock, asking the Lord to provide a wife within the year. I will admit that I followed this routine more out of discipline than strong faith. Even so, the Lord was gracious to hear me. By the time I started working at Heritage in the spring of 2025, those occasional thoughts about Lauren had grown into genuine curiosity. She had joined a missions training program called The Pathway to the Nations, which I was also part of, and we shared many mutual friends. Everywhere I turned, people spoke highly of her. Naturally, I wanted to see this for myself, and I began to pray and began to consider asking her out. Then, just as I was gaining clarity, I heard that Lauren had started dating someone. Wanting to honor a brother, I stepped back. In the Lord’s kindness, that relationship eventually came to an end. When I heard that she was single again, I knew I should not let the opportunity pass. There was just one problem. I still did not really know her. That changed one evening at the home of some friends from church, the Paraskevas family. I was sitting on the couch with Nick when we heard a knock at the door. To my surprise, it was Lauren. As it turns out, she lived in the apartment just below them and had accidentally locked herself out, an act I now recognize as providence. She needed a ride to her landlord’s house to pick up a spare key. They kindly offered to take her and told me I did not need to come. Naturally, I ignored that suggestion and joined them anyway. That car ride was the turning point. For the first time, we had a real conversation. I quickly noticed how thoughtfully she spoke. Her answers were clear, meaningful, and full of purpose. More than anything, her love for the Lord was evident in every word. Somewhere between the driveway and the landlord’s house, I realized I was no longer just curious. I was interested. By the time I left that evening, my mind was made up. I would ask her out that Wednesday after our midweek service. So I did! And as I got to know Lauren closely, my curiosity turned quickly into a deep and abiding romance. I fell in love! The Lord had answered my prayers. I am so excited for you all to see the next chapter of this story begin… To God be the glory!!

The first time I saw Hunter it was the fall of 2020 and we were both living on the Hill at Liberty University. The reason I remember seeing him was that he was wearing a unique COVID-19 mask that was a leftover from his summer working at Pine Cove. I wouldn’t see Hunter again until two years later when I joined a Disciple Making Team (DMT) through Heritage Baptist Church (HBC) that happened to be the team that he was co-leading with two of my friends. My first impression of Hunter was that he was zealous for the gospel as he boldly led our team down the block to the outside of a random church where he read from Matthew 28 to our group, encouraging us with the fact that because Jesus possesses all authority, we get to share the gospel with the confidence of that knowledge. After the DMT ended, we remained acquaintances and had a lot of the same friends, but didn’t really see eachother much! In 2024, I became a member at HBC and entered the missions training program that Hunter was already a part of. However, it wasn’t until summer 2025 when I continued asking the Lord to allow me to meet my future husband by the end of the year that the Lord put Hunter back on my radar through a random (yet providential) turn of events. While at church, having just returned from a vacation with my family, Hunter made his way into a conversation I was in and asked how the vacation had been. I was caught off guard and remember thinking, “How does this guy know I just went to the beach with my family? That’s kind of odd.” I wondered for a moment if he was interested in me, but quickly discarded the thought. The next day, I was sitting on my front porch eating dinner when I accidentally locked myself out of my apartment! Stranded barefoot and without a key, I ran upstairs to our friends the Paraskevas' to see if I could borrow a credit card to shimmy the lock open. To my utter surprise, when the door opened, Hunter was sitting on their couch! After no success with the credit card, the four of us ended up driving to my landlord’s home to pick-up a spare key. That drive was one of my first serious conversations with Hunter, and when I finally got back into my apartment I remember thinking that I enjoyed myself. The next day while at lunch with a mentor, she happened to bring up Hunter and ask, “Would you consider dating him?” After some conversation with her, I realized I would be open to it, but again, I didn’t think anything was going to happen. Little did I know! On the following day, as I was leaving our church’s Wednesday night service, Hunter noticed when I was leaving and called my name to ask if he could walk me to my car because he had a couple questions for me. When we made it to my car, he told me that he had realized that he had known me for two years and that his community spoke highly of me, but he didn’t actually know me and my heart. After this he asked if he could get to know me better by taking me on a date. We went on our first date on August 2 at the Farm Basket in Lynchburg. And if you made it this far, you know how the rest of the story goes… To God be the glory!