Funny how love finds you when you are least looking for it. It was the summer of 2022. Karina was halfway through her studies at Triad School of Ministry (TSOM) with plans to be on the mission field in about five years. Dating was the furthest thing from her mind. She was attending Trinity Worship Center in Burlington – the home of TSOM. Trinity happened to be the church Ian had been attending since he was invited to youth group as a teenager by his best friend Jacob. Ian had aged out of youth group, but still helped as a volunteer, and Karina also volunteered with the youth as did all of the TSOM students.

Ian and Karina existed in the same circles for several months. The start of their friendship came when Ian revived the Narwhal Cup, a summer event of competitions and games for teens that Trinity had done many years ago. Ian campaigned to head up the event, put Karina on the committee, and met regularly with a couple of leaders for most of the summer Taylor Moser, who will be the officiant at their wedding, describes these meetings as supervised dates.

Karina and Ian worked hard to create a memorable event. As Red Team captains, they both dyed their hair red and Ian quipped, “We’re Mr. and Mrs. Red Team.” Wink wink. But Karina had no idea the length of Ian’s enthusiasm and costume-making ability until the first night of the Narwhal Cup.

Clash and a flash of lightning! The pirate captain, the reddest man alive, stormed into Trinity dressed from head to toe in red – long red coat, red sash, tall red boots — no part was any other color but red. He led the Red Team to Narwhal Cap victory, and Karina was captivated by his redness and enthusiasm for the sport he entirely made up.

At the close of Narwhal Cup, Karina and Ian realized they would not be seeing each other as often. Karina invited Ian to take classes at TSOM, which Ian did, which was in hindsight a $2000 ploy to spend time with Karina. One week into TSOM classes, Ian was fed up with being friends and he asked her out on their first date. And you know the end of the story because here you are on their wedding website.

Karina will still answer God’s call to go to Japan. Since Ian is answering God’s call to be her husband, together they plan to be on the mission field in 3-5 years. In the meantime, the couple will live in Graham. As of this writing, Ian is looking for a job in welding and Karina continues to work at the Converse Outlet Store in Mebane.

They say we make plans and God laughs. We are sure God will be laughing at our wedding. We hope you will come and laugh with us as we join our lives together and see what God has planned for us next.