Mr. & Mrs. Strouse

Parker and Hannah met in the Discipleship School year 22'-23'. Parker was a student in the school, and Hannah has administrated the Night School on Staff at Antioch Church in Waco for almost 3 years today. Fall semester of the school year they were distant friends but Hannah had her eye on Parker for a while. In December, Hannah invited Parker to a friend's graduation where Hannah's true interest in him sparked a crush; but he was "too much like her dad", she told herself, and he was still in the school, so she laid it to rest for the time being, with a distant wonder of what could be. Christmas break of that year, the Lord randomly brought Parker to mind one morning in Hannah's quiet time and gave Hannah a specific verse to pray over him and to set aside a journal to write prayers in for him. The Lord said to pray for him with zero expectation he would ever read it, but to genuinely learn to intercede on a friend's behalf. It was a random request from the Lord, and abnormal for Hannah, definitely not something she'd ever done before, especially since they were still just friends. But God was in the business of teaching Hannah the power of intercession and prayer for others in the coming months. So she bought a leather-bound journal and labeled it the "Parker Strouse journal" with Psalm 119:9 underneath. Spring semester rolled around, they remained friends and led a prayer hour together every Friday in the prayer room at Antioch, and it wasn't until April that Hannah started to initiate regular hangouts with Parker, going to his life-group, meeting his circle, asking him to help her move her furniture to her new place, and end of April she invited him to the infamous Regionals track meet for her brother. There, Parker met her entire immediate and extended family, and got to come face-to-face with the southern, country upbringing Hannah received. It was there, that Madison Joy (Hannah's sweet 12 year old sister) became best buds with Parker, making bets on who would win each round of the meet. It was a beautiful first step of becoming closer friends, karaoke-ing to Adele and Alicia Keys, and sharing similar interests in their relationship with Jesus, on their 2 hour car ride together. Hannah would describe that day as her first real moment of falling in love with Parker, but Parker had still yet had his moment, and was curious to get to know the young woman, but steered more towards taking his time in doing so. Early May, Hannah had discovered through their conversations that Parker was learning to play guitar and sing; so she asked him to lead an acoustic set with her and a friend at a Night School class. It was through their practices together and Parker fully witnessing Hannah's love of leading worship that he really started to like her. Fast forward, they went on an end-of-year outreach together to Ecuador, with a team of students in June of 2023. After further seeing the ministry calling on Hannah's life and the type of character she had, Parker initiated a clarity conversation with Hannah on the trip saying he would love to take her out on a first date when they returned to the US. July 16th, they went on their first date, and on July 28th, he asked her to be his girlfriend. The Parker journal became both a prayer journal and documentation of the early days of their relationship; cute notes Parker wrote Hannah, dainty flowers pressed inside, and recaps of their first dates. It wasn't long after that, by the end of December, it had become clear the two were inseparable. :) On May 11th, 2024, they got engaged and are overjoyed at the life they get to lead with Jesus together. What they enjoy most is to lead and do ministry together, and our home and family one day will be the greatest ministry of our lives. And it all starts on May 24th... we hope to see all of our favorite people there.