Noah and Ave met for the first time at OneLife Institute, a gap year program that was being held at Black Rock Retreat at the time.

A few months into the program, Ave and Noah were surface level friends, but were getting to know each other as they had to spend 10 hours every other weekend sitting behind the BRR guest service desk doing volunteer work together. This photo is the night before we all traveled to Montana!

At this point, Noah had started to play pranks on Ave a lot! and they started hanging out more, realizing that they both really enjoyed each other's company, but denying that they had feelings....

If you want to know the story of how they finally confessed feelings to each other in early March... you should probably ask them! It takes a long time to tell and is a story of 24 hours of miscommunication and eventually happiness! ha!

They got to travel to Istanbul, Turkey with OneLife, and visited the Hagia Sophia. During this time, the pair continued to navigate what their relationship both during and after OneLife would look like (as the program didn't allow dating), so at this point they were still just friends.

Somehow, Ave and Noah got chosen to be in the same Trek group, where they did a four day backpacking trip in Northwestern PA. They also somehow got placed in the same Cooking Group and were made Leaders of the Day together. They had to plan out a whole day of the trip, and it was a good growing experience for both of them learning how to work together and lead a group (even if Noah almost burnt down the forest at one point...).

They eventually graduated OneLife on May 7th, and were pretty heartbroken about not getting to see each other every day. On May 8th, Noah showed up to Ave's doorstep, asking her dad permission to date her. Later, while hammocking in a park, he asked her to officially be his girlfriend.

They continued on, growing in their relationship over the summer! They met each other's families. Eventually, Ave moved to Cairn University and Noah got a job at Black Rock Retreat. Noah would drive the almost 2 hours each way to see Ave every single weekend for 5 months!! Sometimes even two days in row... and saying goodbye every time was incredibly sad.

1 year of dating! At this point, Ave had left Cairn and was living and working at home, while Noah was still at Black Rock. They would then both work at Black Rock's summer camp, but didn't have their phones, and went back to only seeing, and even talking, to each other on Saturdays. As sad as that was, it was a blessing for them to do ministry together at the place they met!

2 years of dating! Time flies... Ave transferred to Lancaster Bible College, and Noah was now working full time at Black Rock. That summer they both continued to work at camp together, and Noah was a huge support through the cancer diagnosis of Ave's sister. It felt like more and more tough life experiences kept happening that made them grow even closer and learn to support each other.

3 years of dating!! and their last... ;) Because Noah proposed on their anniversary with the most beautiful set up of flowers, at the place they met, Black Rock!