In August, 1978, on her first day of school at Valley Forge Christian College, Michele Carrieri (’81) met the love of her life.

She was walking to the dining commons with her roommate when she noticed a nice-looking young man walking toward them, a little boy on his shoulder. She turned to her roommate and confidently said, “You see that guy right there? I’m going to marry him.”

She soon found out two things: one, the cute guy’s name was Dan McKenna, and two, the little boy was his nephew Eric, with whom Dan spent a lot of time after the death of Eric’s dad.

Not long after her love-at-first-sight discovery, Dan’s roommate, Billy, came to Michele’s dorm room window looking for another girl. As he and Michele talked, she said to him, “Billy, I think you’re cute, but I think Dan is cuter.” Billy promptly relayed the message to Dan, who asked Michele out to a football game.

Four weeks after they saw each other on the first day of school, Dan and Michele were engaged. They were married the following July.

The newlyweds finished degrees in Bible and Religious Education. After graduation, they immediately took the pastorate at Calvary AG in Pennsauken, NJ, where Dan served as the Youth/Associate Pastor and Michele was the secretary. In the years that followed, they also pastored in Rhode Island and in Buffalo, New York.

Now, 32 years later, Dan is the lead pastor at Lighthouse Tabernacle in Lumberton, NJ, and is finishing his doctoral degree through the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. Michele works as the Women’s Director for the New Jersey District Council of the Assemblies of God, and serves as the small group director at their church. Together, they are training to be Church Life consultants. They have three children: Jesse, Jordan, and Danielle.

For Dan and Michele, that first day of school set their lives on a course that neither of them ever expected to take. Only God knew that one glance would change everything.