Waiting on God’s timing isn’t always easy, but it is always worth it. Both of our stories illustrate the difficulty and the blessing of waiting on the Lord.

Since graduating college in 2010, I (Theresa, “Pinky”, “Lindell”, or Ms. Lindell) have been enjoying teaching mathematics at Greenville High School in the town of my alma mater (Greenville College). In addition to teaching, I released my first three records between 2019 and 2023. I never found myself with a shortage of ways to spend time between teaching, songwriting, and helping with the local youth group. Investing in teens, reading the Bible, and writing songs was definitely my jam. I was pretty content to continue living in the Greenville bubble occupying myself with the aforementioned pastimes. However, in 2017, when my mom was in her last year in a major teaching role through Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) in central Illinois, she asked if I would join the study in a location nearer to me. I started attending Bible Study Fellowship that fall in St. Louis with the young adult class and became a leader for the study in spring of 2018. The Lord had begun weaving Nathan and I’s stories together even then - I just didn’t know it yet. Through the following seven years of leading at Bible Study Fellowship, I made a slough of new friends, was in another round of weddings (the previous round was post college), but began to think that if I was to get married, it certainly wouldn’t be soon. I trusted the Lord, but hoped for something I did not yet see.

I (Nathan) have worked for Boeing as a mechanical engineer in St. Charles since graduating Missouri S&T in 2015. Before that, and for 5 years post-graduation, I worked with my siblings to start a lawn and landscape company that is now run full-time by my brother, Ryan. Besides work, I enjoy whitetail deer. I started hunting them when I was 10 and that grew into a taxidermy hobby and later into an actual breeding operation that my parents and I started in 2008 and now runs around 200 head of whitetail. These three endeavors kept me occupied, to say the least, but starting in my early college years, the Lord grew in me a love for His Word that was insatiable. I started listening to the Scripture on repeat wherever I drove, but the Lord had more in mind. Next, a sibling rivalry formed between me and my sister, Ashley, where we competed against each other to memorize large portions of the Bible. In fall of 2019, I walked into BSF for the first time and was immediately hooked. I had found a group of believers who wanted to study the Word of God in-depth! Little did I know that Theresa (who was living in far-away Greenville) was also involved in this same ministry.

Our stories intersected in May of 2020 over Zoom of all places, when Pinky played her song, “Mystery Come Close” for the final night that the St. Louis Young Adults BSF met for that semester. Needless to say, Nathan wasn’t very impressed with the song over Zoom, but when he joined leadership a year later in fall of 2021, he wasn’t as averse to Pinky’s guitar playing abilities.

Throughout the next three years, we often stayed late at leader’s meetings for Bible Study to discuss the passage more in depth with a few of the staff members. Soon (two years later) a platonic friendship started to grow into a romantic interest. On May 31, 2024, after quite a few months of Nathan scheming of how to ask Pinky on a date, and many months of Pinky praying about saying yes, Nathan made a move. Pinky said yes to a date but promptly left for Alaska three days later, leaving Nathan to wait three weeks before going on an actual first date. After Pinky’s return from Alaska, the Lord made it clear that He had been directing our story from the beginning, and it was more than just our interest in each other.

On November 23, 2024, Nathan asked the far more important question, “Will you marry me?” and Pinky responded with a whole-hearted “Yes!”

We very much see the Lord’s hand in our stories, as we are both in our 30s - He certainly did a work to preserve us for each other, and we are grateful!

T&N