The Princess and The Preacher

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I thought there would be no better way to get the ball rolling than a real life love story. I've mentioned in a previous post that the Preacher Man and I had a long friendship before any sparks started to fly. Everyone around us accused us of being in "love" from the beginning, but we seriously didn't see it. Our best friends, employers, and even the Preacher Man's youth group saw hearts in our eyes. I think both of us knew there was some sort of interest beyond friendship, but nothing ever surfaced. Nothing until the Summer of 2003....

During the summer the Preacher Man and I became closer than ever before. This summer instead of the Preacher Man (at the time he was only the Youth Preacher Man) being gone all summer long on mission trips, summer camps, and other various activities he invited me to come along. He never had enough female sponsors that summer, he always needed one more. We began working as a team. We began serving the Lord together.   We began leading worship together. We began praying together. We began falling in love.

I am so thankful for those two years of our nothing-but-friends relationship. It made things so comfortable and allowed love to slip upon us very quickley. This particular summer we shared some amazing times of ministry together. Our first adventure was a Flordia "Beach Reach" Mission Trip. We took a group of students to Florida to teach them about evangelism and put their boldness to work. We lead worship for two different churches at camp. And, we began to take our friendship to a new level.

As we drove back from Florida, with a van load of zonked out kiddos we drove into the perfect sunset. It was at that point in time that I began seeing the Preacher Man in a different way. As we talked quietly amongst the sleepy teenagers about our hopes, dreams, and pure randomness I began to realize we may have a future. Then as we continued the summer on the questions began to fly. Everyone saw our friendship turning sweet and took it upon themselves to make it  happen. We were asked pointed questions on a five hour drive home through the microphone of a charter bus by youth, we were secretly coupled up at a sweethearts banquet, and other tried multiple times to reveal the truth of our relationship through the tactic of embarassment. We sat back, acted cool, and never said a word. The last week at camp that we led Praise & Worship, was the week the Preacher Man finally decided it was time to have a DTR. We waited until camp was over and began discussing our relationship in a whole new light.

My best friend became my boyfriend.
And quickley my boyfriend became my husband.

We began offcial dating towards the end of July.
He proposed in October.
We were married in December.

The Lord had prepared our hearts for one another. He blessed us with a solid friendship and strengthened it until the point of love.

The night the Preacher Man ask me to be his wife, we were suppose to be going to the theater to watch a play. After he led me through a downtown city park, got down on one knee, and proposed he showed me our show tickets. Come to find out were were the lead roles of the play. He pulled out two computer-generated tickets that read, "The Princess and The Preacher."