This is not a Love story. It’s also not a short one either.

It’s much more than that.

This is a God story.

This story is a single note in the grand symphony that God has been writing before the beginning of time. And we believe that it is a testament to God’s faithfulness, sovereignty, and genuine, individual love that He has for His children.

It’s a story that no one else could write. We hope that it is an encouragement to any who read it. God is always working. He’s always pursuing. He’s always faithful.

John Will’s side:

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved girls. I never went through the “cootie” stage; you would probably describe me as a “romantic at heart.” It was always very obvious that I wanted to be married and to be a husband and father more than almost anything in the world. There was just one problem: I didn’t have the greatest track record of successful dating. In church, I would hear about the “gift of singleness” which is something I desperately did NOT want to have: I couldn’t ever seem to find a breakthrough in dating. All through highschool and college, I was always the single one of the group - but why was that? Was I not good looking enough? Was I not fit enough? Was I not outgoing enough? Did I talk too much? Talk too little? Not funny enough? Not masculine enough? I tried it all.

I tried asking all different types of girls, even strangers, to prove that I was brave enough or worthy enough of love and acceptance. I would read random love stories of guys doing crazy things to sweep a girl off her feet and make her fall in love with them. Over time, this deep sense of frustration welled up due to a strong sense of powerlessness. I couldn’t will myself into a relationship no matter how hard I tried. Life was very exhausting on the hamster-wheel of “If you only did this better then you’d be in a relationship.” I’d return home many times disappointed after another girl that didn’t work out. God kept shutting doors whether I wanted him to or not. A lot of times my Mom or Nana would tell me this phrase: “Man’s rejection is God’s protection.”

One morning in Spring of 2023 I was having time with the Lord and turned to the very front of the Bible in Genesis 1 and 2. God had spoken and created all living things. He then breathed into a pile of dirt and created Adam. He set him in the Garden to work it and take care of it. There was no sin, just God and Adam and creation. Yet something was missing. In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” I grew up a good Presbyterian so I had certainly read this before. But at this moment I felt like I was reading it with new eyes. It wasn’t Adam who had said he needed a helper. It was God. God knew exactly what Adam needed and said he would do it. In verse 23 it said that “God made a woman (Eve) from the rib he had taken out of the man (Adam) and he brought her to the man.” Not only did God know what Adam needed, a helper, but he also brought her to him. He didn’t have to go searching through the Garden or do anything special. God brought her to him.

As I read this, I had to ask myself this question: “Do I actually know what type of helper I need?” I had to have a moment of honesty. I had failed so many times in the “wife acquisition department”. I realized I had spiritual pride that said “I can find a wife for myself. I can manifest this destiny.” But the proof in the pudding said that I didn't know what I needed. I prayed to God saying something like this: “God, I clearly don’t know what I need. I’m tired of writing my love story. I want YOU to write it. Whenever I meet the right person, I want it to be clear in my mind that You chose her, not me.”

I had placed a heavy burden on myself to go out and find the perfect girl which would lead to the perfect marriage and life. I had to have a perspective shift in my mind: what if it wasn’t my responsibility to find her? This didn’t mean that I didn’t have a responsibility to pursue a woman’s heart but instead was allowed to rest, knowing God would guide me to her. Similarly to when Abraham sent his servant to go find a wife for his beloved Son Isaac, I wanted God to send the Holy Spirit to bring my wife to me. I wanted the community around our relationship to say: “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing else” (Gen. 24:50). My job was to be Isaac who “went out to the field one evening to pray, and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching” (Gen 24:63). My job was to seek the Lord and wait for the camels to come.

Then in April of 2023, I went to a family dinner through our church at SmoothRock Conference Center in Liberty Park which is where I first met Anna. I remember our encounter well but I didn’t have a thought of “I just met my future wife.” The next several weeks Anna’s and my friendship was just the basic “Hi, how are you?” friendship passing each other at church as she greeted at the door.

In May, I went to Israel with my family where one day our tour guide took us to a diamond exporting company in Tiberias near the Sea of Galilee. I went along just to be curious. While I was there, I had a crazy thought: What if I bought an engagement ring diamond on faith? At that moment I had no girl, Anna or otherwise, on my brain. Nonetheless, I went forward and bought that diamond for my future wife, having no idea that I had already met her.

In the months that followed, several people in our community started to “bring up” Anna’s name more frequently. Eventually even my own sister, who had gotten to know Anna, told me “John Will, I really think you need to pray about pursuing Anna! She is made for you!” Admittedly, at the time, I was intimidated. I overthought. I came up with excuses. I was stuck.

Men, don’t repeat my mistakes and just embrace the risk and ask out that girl you’ve had on your mind.

However, I continued to pray and felt a peace start to wash over me where I knew that I wanted to pursue her and know her heart.

On December 17th, Anna had planned a game night that I decided to show up to unannounced at the last minute wearing a red plaid shirt (This is relevant in Anna’s story). The night was fun and as everyone left, I stayed to talk. We ended up talking for over an hour. Eventually, I worked up the courage to give a “clarity speech” which, ironically, was not very clear at all. I fumbled over my words but managed to get out the words “take you out on a date.”

In the days that followed I realized that Anna was no ordinary girl, she was specifically “made for me.” By the second date I knew and told my family that I was going to marry her. We had coffee at June Coffee where Anna shared a story that only God could write. It was clear that God had woven our stories together into a story that only He could write. It didn’t take long, 2 months and 9 days, to be exact, for me to propose to Anna at Smooth Rock (where we originally met) with my Israeli “faith” diamond. When God writes the story it’s always better and I’m so expectant of all that He will do with us together!

Anna’s Side:

In contrast to John Will, I truly believe that God did give me the gift of singleness, at least for a time in my life. Most girls made pinterest boards of their future wedding and would talk and dream often of their future husbands. I was not that girl. I believed in my heart that God had hidden me away and I was truly content in the season of life God had placed me in.

In Spring of 2023, this mindset started to shift as I started to experience discontentment and a longing for marriage. Unfortunately, I soon took matters in my own hands to try to fill the void in my heart. I waded into the waters of online dating and started talking with guys that I knew I was settling for.

In March, I went to a women’s conference with a friend of mine. One of the optional breakout sessions during the day that my friend made me attend was entitled “Praying for Your Spouse/ Future Spouse.” Again, I was not that type of girl…I felt that praying for a future spouse would make me appear needy and clingy. During the session, the leader asked for anyone that was single and praying for their future spouse to please stand up and be prayed over. I resisted initially but then stood up. As these women laid their hands on me to pray, I began to feel a release from my pride. Afterwards, our speaker had a session on Joshua 5-6, which is about the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, a journey that lasted 40 years but only should have lasted just over two weeks.

In these chapters, there was a time of cutting away (circumcision), a time of healing, a time of being filled with the Spirit, and then God gave the unusual battle plan for the taking of Jericho. Suddenly, God spoke to me in my spirit, telling me to “cut off” the relationship I was in, and that He would move in my relationships in April. To have God speaking to me this way was something I had never experienced. I returned home and ended my relationship, knowing that I had to be obedient to the Lord.However, I still had doubts about God saying that He would move in my relationships in April. Still, I prayed to Him, saying "God, I want your best or nothing at all". At that time, I truly believed that His answer would be "nothing"

In April, I attended a family church dinner and was introduced to a tall man with a name tag that said “John Will.” In the moment of our introduction, God again specifically and unexpectedly spoke to me, saying "Anna, this is my best for you"

I didn’t grow up believing God would speak in this way but nevertheless I knew without a doubt that He just had. I didn’t tell anyone about what I had heard and over the next few months I continued to pray and ask God to confirm what He had spoken. So many times I would get in my head and start to doubt. “God, are you still in this?” There was nothing romantic appearing to happen between John Will and I. There were many times I wanted to take control and make something happen. But God would continue to meet me in the waiting and give me the clarity and peace to keep moving forward and trust Him completely.

It wasn’t until November that God really started to move. I became friends with one of John Will’s close friends, Madison. After Madison shared a similar story of God speaking specifically to her husband to pursue her, it gave me the courage to confide in her what I knew God had told me. From that moment, Madison became my prayer warrior, interceding on John Will’s and my behalf. We started asking God to move and bring down the walls of John Will’s heart just like the children of Israel marching around Jericho. We prayed without using any manipulation at John Will’s expense; I knew that if the same Spirit had spoken to me that He would speak to John Will too on His own timing.

I looked back on the past several months and had seen that God had been writing Joshua 5 and 6 in my story. I had a time of cutting away, I had gone through a time of healing, and I had been filled in new ways in the Spirit as my relationship and intimacy with the Lord grew in ways I had never experienced before. I truly believed now in my heart that I was at the unusual battle plan - that Jericho/John Will’s “walls” would fall down. During this time, I had been reading Exodus 33, which is where Moses would go into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord face to face, as one speaks to a friend (verse 11). I truly was believing and desiring a relationship with John Will but more than anything I wanted to encounter the Lord in a personal relational way just like Moses.

On November 14th, I was driving back home after having coffee with a friend. As I drove over the hill, I experienced the presence of the Lord like I had never before. Again, these type of God experiences were not ones that I was accustomed to. The glory of the Lord was so thick in my car that I had to pull over. He spoke to me as clearly as ever: “Anna, Anna, I have given John Will to you. He is going to start coming after you, it will get overwhelming. Don’t get overwhelmed.” As the presence left, I drove home immediately, wrote down word for word what the Lord had spoken, and then went into my prayer closet to worship. I was overcome with so much emotion, not because God had spoken about John Will, but because I truly had just met with the living God.

As I started to pray, I thought back to a phrase God had used that was worded in an interesting way. I would have expected God to say, “I have given you to John Will.” But I then remembered what God had said to Joshua in Joshua 6:2. “I have given Jericho to you.” It was the same wording…only God could have said something like this – connecting the words He had spoken back in March to this moment. I didn’t really know what was next, but I knew that God was moving and that that wall was coming down! What God truly says He will accomplish!

Madison and I sent countless texts and voice memos of prayers and scriptures as the next few weeks went by. Madison then shared with me how the two nights prior the Lord had woken her up in a dream. She saw in that dream a picture of John Will in a red plaid shirt knocking on my front door. I was still unsure of what the dream meant, but I continued to pray that the Lord would tear down any type of barrier in the way of John Will’s heart. Then on December 17th, I held a game night for our church friends at my house, knowing that John Will had other plans and wouldn’t be attending. But shortly after the game night started, I heard a knock at the door. My face dropped as John Will entered in nothing other than a red plaid shirt! I immediately texted Madison to start praying. As the night wore down, everyone else left and John Will stayed. Admittedly, he was still nervous during his “clarity speech” but eventually he asked me out.

On our first date, an eight hour long date I might add, we had numerous deep conversations and I could quickly see that God had made us for each other. We ended up having coffee at June Coffee on January 6th and John Will had us sit down for a second “clarity speech.” He then shared his heart and how God had shown him in Genesis how God brought Adam a helper that he didn’t even pick for himself. I knew that there was no real way to share all that God had done in my life for the past year without sharing every detail. But at that moment, I took a deep breath and shared the entire story with him, still somewhat nervous that he might think I was crazy.

I’m so grateful that he didn’t; the Lord really has brought our stories together at just the right time. It couldn’t have happened any faster or slower. God was right on time. And exactly two months and nine days later, John Will took me back to the spot at SmoothRock where God had told me “This is my best.” And as they say, the rest is history!

We hope that our story is encouraging to all who read it. If you’ve read this long, we hope that these three truths are clear from our story.

God is a truly personal God who can speak into every circumstance, in any way, He wants.

God is a sovereign God who is involved in every detail that we might not see until the appointed time. We can completely trust Him as our Author; we don’t ever need to take control.

God is a patient God who is in the waiting, the now and not yet, with us. He is the ultimate prize and is worth the wait.

Most traditional wedding vows include the phrase, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” We have no doubt that it is God alone that has joined us together. God has given us to each other not just for our joy but for His glory! We are both truly so excited for what God has in store, as He takes both of our individual stories and crafts a new one as we march toward the greatest wedding of all: The Marriage Supper of Christ and His Bride. Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus!