“We were both juniors at Blue Mountain Academy in Hamburg, PA. The first day of school traditionally included “the handshake,” where we greeted every single person. That was the first time I (Matheus) officially met Raquel. When she said her name, it immediately jumped out at me. “Raquel is my favorite name,” I remember thinking. But we couldn’t really see each other’s faces. We were coming back from the peak of the COVID lockdown, so everyone was masked up. A few weeks went by and we hadn’t really talked, but I remember noticing how pretty she was and trying to make the first intentional eye contact. Unsuccessful. She wouldn’t budge or glance my way. But I was up for a challenge. During a class, she came over to speak with my friend sitting behind me to ask him something. I took that opportunity to try and say something smart. I got ignored — by her and by my friend. “Okay, I have to step up my game.” A week or so later, during a school event where students visited booths to volunteer how they wanted to contribute to the school’s devotional and prayer meetings, Raquel came to the booth where I was helping collect information. “This is my chance,” I thought. She shared that she wanted to help with a “recital.” I immediately took the opportunity to ask her more about what that meant, showing as much interest as possible. She explained that she wanted to recite an entire chapter from the Bible from memory. “This girl is special,” I remember thinking. “I have never heard of that — that’s so cool!” I tried showing genuine interest, but honestly, I was more interested in her than in the recital itself. That was our first positive interaction. A few days later, Raquel came up to me and asked if I wanted to help her with her upcoming recital in two weeks. “WHAT?!” was my immediate thought, but I acted completely unfazed. “I’ve never recited. I'm horrible and hate memorizing things! I would never agree to something like this," I immediately thought. For this reason, I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “Of course! I’d love to recite with you!” I completely shot myself in the foot — but in hindsight, it turned out to be the best decision I could have made. I was terrified about the recital, but that was a problem for future me. For now, I had an excuse to talk to her more. For the next two weeks, we met to practice the recital chapter of her choosing, Isaiah 53. Those meetings were mostly for practice, but we had great conversations and slowly got to know each other better. We were officially friends. Then came the dreaded recital day. I was extremely nervous, but of course, opting out was no longer an option. I tried my best and messed up quite a bit, but thankfully Raquel had everything memorized and carried the recital (thankfully). After that experience, we grew closer, talking almost every day and sitting together during meals. That’s when our love began to kindle. The rest is history. However, the most interesting part came over two years later, when we were already dating. Reflecting, I asked her why she had decided to invite me to help with the recital, especially since we barely knew each other at the time. She told me she didn’t really know either. She said maybe God had placed it on her heart to ask, even though we weren’t close. Since I had shown interest in her recital idea, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask. She didn’t fully know why then. But now we both know. We believe God was already carving a path toward a long and happy future together. That one “yes” to reciting Isaiah 53 together would eventually lead to one of the biggest decisions of our lives. “Yes,” I do want to marry you. Fun fact: While looking through old pictures one day, we discovered that we had attended the same event in Pennsylvania months before meeting at Blue Mountain Academy. We never spoke to each other there, though. It’s funny to think my future wife was randomly at the same event as me (and I had absolutely no idea).”