Matt was raised in Suwanee and began attending Stonebridge Church in 2018 with his friend Andrew Fortier while he was an engineering student KSU. He knew there was something missing in his life and accepted Jesus while in college. Matt quickly plugged into the young adult community at Stonebridge, staying after he graduated and began working at GTRI. He was a regular member of the Fortier’s Sunday small group when I visited in February of 2022. I (Mollie) grew up in Marietta and graduated from UGA in 2017. I was living in Roswell near my company’s office until the pandemic in 2020. After going through a similar season of searching, I accepted Jesus in February of 2022 and began attending Stonebridge church after finding out that family friends, Mark and Mary Lyn Huffman, were members. I also quickly plugged into the community, trying out different small groups (including the Fortier’s where I met Matt) before clicking in with Alex & Tess Dykstra’s group. Alex and Matt were already good friends but grew closer as they trained in 2022 for the Chattanooga Ironman. Meanwhile, Mary Lyn Huffman and I felt called to start an additional small group for singles and began putting the group together for September of 2022. Matt and I were friends through the Dykstra’s when the singles group started, but our friendship grew deeper as we interacted at singles group and other misc gatherings. I even cheered Matt and Alex on in Chattanooga during their Ironman! Matt and I stayed friends during 2023 and had no plans of dating until we went to OneCamp, a Christian camp for Stonebridge youth and a couple other churches in our church network, in July 2023. I was very focused that week on the girls in my cabin and soaking up the camp experience, yet found myself frustrated that Matt kept coming to mind during quiet moments. We didn’t interact much during camp week, but enjoyed meeting at the coffee station and catching up on all of the teenager camp drama (like wrestling matches in the boy’s cabin). Matt experienced something similar and decided when we got back from camp that he needed to do something about it. The Sunday we got back from camp was a typical Sunday. Matt and I saw each other at the park to play sports with other adults from church. He and I walked with our friend Chris to a coffee shop after sports and then went separately to church where they were having a “reunion service” for all of the camp attendees and counselors. Matt and I sat next to each other and after the service spent time chatting with other counselors and students. I intended to wait for Matt as he talked to one of his students who had gotten baptized, but decided it was best to head home after the long day. Matt, unbeknownst to me, was intent on keeping me by his side, hoping for a minute alone. He’d overheard at the park earlier that day that I had “dinner plans” for the next day and wanted to talk to me before then. When I left his side to head home as he talked to his student, I headed to the ladies room, but Matt feared the worst. Thinking I’d left to go home, Matt quickly texted me to please wait and wrapped up his conversation, telling the kid that his “revelation from camp” had walked out the door. Thankfully, I got the text and chatted with friends in the lobby until Matt was finished. He walked me outside the church doors and pulled me off to the side to ask me to dinner (I canceled my other plans) and we had our first date at La Cubana off the Square the next night. The ease and comfort we felt at each other’s side was surprising and delightful. The deep friendship and respect that had been slowly growing over the past year quickly blossomed into a love and affection for one another. I love to tell “our” story because it’s really a story of God’s faithfulness to us and through us. It’s a story of community and prayer and that one time at OneCamp…