It’s a traditional romance story.
An unplanned encounter. Hours speaking on a again porch. A night that nobody needs to finish. Reciting passages from the “Westminster Confession of Religion.”
“As we have been speaking she quoted the confession on the perspicuity of Scripture. My coronary heart skipped a beat,” stated Sheldon Nordhues.
Sheldon and Laura Nordhues have what Laura calls “essentially the most PCA love story ever.” They met on the PCA Normal Meeting, fell in love over doctrine, and now, married and with a seven-month-old daughter, each work within the denomination. Sheldon is a giving strategist for the PCA Foundation and Laura is an administrative coordinator at Grace Church in Canton, Georgia.
However their story begins in heartbreak. Each skilled divorces. Laura suffered infertility and miscarriages. And after strolling these lonely roads with their households and respective church buildings, each have been cautious of romance.
“[I thought] the probability of assembly a person who’s a believer and consistent with my beliefs to the extent to the place I’d contemplate courting once more – not going to occur,” Laura stated. “[I thought], ‘The Lord has struggling for me on this life, He’s rising me and utilizing me in different individuals’s lives, and that’s my story: struggling.’ I didn’t count on that he would bathe on blessing after blessing after blessing.”
The bathe of blessings started in 2022 when Birmingham-area PCA church buildings wanted volunteers for the Normal Meeting worship group. Laura had by no means attended an Meeting earlier than, however her brother and sister-in-law have been coming to city for the Meeting, and she or he wished to spend time with them. So she signed up.
Sheldon, however, frequently attended the Assemblies in his capability as director of growth with Reformed Theological Seminary, working a sales space within the exhibit corridor and internet hosting after-hours occasions for RTS alumni or donors.
This time, as one of many alumni occasions wound to a detailed, Laura arrived together with her brother’s household. The group hit it off so nicely they didn’t need to cease when the venue requested them to depart, so that they moved to Laura’s again deck. Laura talked about singing at church and what she was studying and learning.
“I used to be like, Who is that this girl?” Sheldon stated. Then she quoted the “Westminster Confession,” and he knew he was .
After the Meeting, Sheldon stated he tried to play it cool, connecting together with her on social media like he related with everybody he met at occasions. And he stored serious about messaging her.
Not lengthy after the Meeting Sheldon met a buddy who wanted assist discovering a church within the neighborhood the place Laura lived. This was the excuse he wanted.
Sheldon despatched Laura a message, and the dialog by no means stopped.
Inside per week they’d talked for 20 hours, Laura remembered. They talked about their religion, their life missions, and the way they wished to dwell their lives. Laura requested whether or not Sheldon would help adoption, as a result of docs had informed her she would probably by no means have a baby.
“We vetted one another very totally about all the pieces,” she remembered. “The extra I obtained to know him the extra I noticed he was above and past something I ever thought [I’d have].”
They weren’t the one ones doing the vetting. Each their households and church periods have been deeply concerned.
“We’re essentially the most vetted couple within the historical past of {couples},” Sheldon stated. “All of our individuals have been tremendous supportive, and that was actually necessary to us.”
For each of them, realizing the opposite held firmly to the tenets of the Reformed religion was important.
“The understanding of God’s sovereignty and the way salvation works, to me it performs into so many issues,” Laura stated. “I wished to be on the identical web page as a result of it performs into the theology of struggling, the way you view your life, the issues that God takes you thru.”
Sheldon stated he wished a accomplice who didn’t simply have a “passing, cursory” understanding of theology, however who shared his deep curiosity and worldview.
“I wished any individual who, after I learn these books, I can discuss these books with; or who can learn these books with me, or hear about these books, and have this deep connection,” he stated. “When you’ve got a special theological worldview, then how do you make sense of this life?”
Sheldon proposed on April Fools’ Day 2023, giving her a Bible engraved with Laura’s identify and his personal final identify. They have been on that again deck, Sheldon kneeling on the identical board the place he sat that evening she quoted the Confession.
They have been married in July in a ceremony officiated by each of their pastors. Eleven months later, they welcomed their daughter, Pleasure Ann.
“The Lord labored this double miracle, for me to get pregnant and to remain pregnant and to offer us this candy youngster so quickly,” Laura stated. “[We] can’t think about what the Lord has for us in our lives.”
Sheldon jokes that he doesn’t perceive why extra males don’t search for wives on the Normal Meeting.
“Our story is fairly miraculous,” he stated.
