I met Wendy Sherrill in Fort Wayne, Indiana at a YMCA swim class. I had been waning in my relationship with God, and Wendy, a leader of the church alongside her husband, Tim, reached out to me at just the right time.
As a single woman over 40 who had never been married, I had been wrestling with my insecurities. I struggled to believe that God had the best in mind for me, especially if that meant not being married. I began studying the Bible with Wendy. As we studied together, Wendy got to know me and my desires very well, one of which was my desire to get married. I made Jesus the Lord of my life soon after.
After a few years in Fort Wayne, God called Wendy and Tim to move to Omaha, Nebraska and lead the church there.
I remember very clearly the day Wendy told me about a single brother from the Omaha church she had gotten to know and wanted me to meet. Jeff was an older single who had raised three children in the church as a single parent. I was worried that rather than being able to encourage him as his sister in Christ, I would read too much into the situation.
Jeff remembered me coming to Omaha to visit Wendy and the church when I went in front of the body to recite Psalm 139. He prayed that he could get to know me after he saw me at church.
We began to get to know each other through email, and we hit it off! He liked to share about his garden and about growing things. He grew up on a farm in South Dakota, and often he would connect spiritual things to cultivating his garden. He was able to see God’s handiwork in nature. I grew to love the stories he told, and I felt like I was making a new friendship with him.
Eventually, Jeff asked me out on a date to the Reach conference. We had not even talked on the phone at that point! We enjoyed meeting for the first time at the Reach conference. Later that summer, I took a trip to Omaha to get to know Jeff better.
As they say, the rest is history. Jeff and I grew to care for one another and enjoyed communicating over the phone and Skype calls. In October 2016, Jeff asked me to be his girlfriend. A month later, I began applying for jobs in Omaha. I got a job offer that was a good fit for me and I moved to Omaha in January 2017 to start working. As time went on, I got to know the brothers and sisters in the Omaha church. It was fun going on double dates with Jeff and other couples from the church.
In May 2017, Jeff proposed to me in front of the whole church and I said yes! We were married October 7, 2017.
God gave me a scripture a few weeks before Wendy moved to Omaha and before I ever met Jeff.
The scripture, Psalm 27:14, says: “Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”
God had a plan all along and was just waiting for the right timing to bring His plan all together.
