The Story of Kentsten

You've heard of Bragelina and Bennifer, now it is time for you to meet Kentsten. Lindsey Brittain and Geoff Ashley competed to give us our celebrity name, but Lindsey's choice of Kentsten won out over Geoff's pick of Kristent. Here is a small piece of our story.

Dating Life: For the sake of this being the longest post ever, I will spare you the back story of how Kent and I met and the tons of ways he romanced and pursued me while dating. I will just say that he is creative, thoughtful, prayerful, and intentional. What made me fall for him?? Primarily the way he loves Christ and that he lives knowing that everything in this life is a means to getting more of Jesus. But, it was also the constant sweet things...for example walking out to find flowers on my doorstep on HIS birthday with an amazingly sweet note attached. It is the silly things like him performing the Souljah Boy at my niece's birthday party and our New Year's celebration. The common interests like writing and deep conversations...the not-so-common interests like The Cowboys (him) and sushi (me). Of course you can't really explain in words what it is you love, all I know is that God made my heart respond to Kent's pursual and I am going to be his wife!!

The Proposal: On February 3rd Kent cooked an amazing dinner of spinach and ricotta chicken, salad, and veggies. The table was covered with candles, rose petals, and a bouquet of flowers. After dinner we went near the lake where Kent started a fire and read me several letters that he had written over the course of our dating relationship. The first was a letter to me while he was in Israel, but it was more of a prayer he had written for our marriage. Second, he read a few pages from his journal about the little details that he loves about me, followed by some verses from Song of Solomon. Last he read this: (sorry, it may be hard to read)




Finally, he bent down on his knee, asked me to be his wife and put this beautiful ring on my finger.

He designed the ring himself, so the diamonds are all placed with symbolism.



After the proposal:We walked a little further to a wooden cross and spent some time worshiping and praying for our marriage. We had never prayed together (other than meals or with other friends), so I loved that our first prayer together was for our marriage to be to the glory of God.

The Engagement Party:We went to my sister's where about 25 of our friends were waiting to celebrate with us. The night was complete with encouragement, champagne, chocolate fondue, and prayer. Here are some pictures from the night.

The scrapbook my sister began for us with pictures of us, a letter from my mom, and notes from everyone at the party.



The beautiful table



The Champagne Toast



Friends that celebrated with us




Sharing our story





Family Pictures




Kent and I are products of the community that surrounds us. God has used family, friends, The Village Church, and our home groups to grow and shape us. We really believe that the gospel collides with all aspects of our lives. Dates, flowers, romantic nights, delicious food, a thought provoking movie, silly moments, good conversation...etc...are not earned or deserved, they are merely an extension of His grace and shadows of God's love. I love our story mostly because it is not ending with Kensten, but instead it will end with how it began...Jesus Christ.