A marriage proposal usually follows months or

years of courtship. But when gospel deejay/minister Ryan Mark proposed to

Dawnette ‘Crissy D’ Reynolds, they weren’t even friends.

The couple, who’ve been married for 13 years,

recently shared the unusual way their relationship formed.

They had recorded the song I Love You Lord for Mark’s The

Chosen Prodigy album, but there were no sparks and dating was the last

thing on Reynolds’ mind.

Things changed after they incidentally

attended a church crusade in November 2006.

“That night mi cry because there was a lot of things going on for me in the spirit, and I felt like God wanted to take me to the next level, and I needed a wife,” he said.

It was around 2 a.m. when he arrived home, and Reynolds was on his mind.

“Mi couldn’t hold it back, mi tek up mi Nokia 3310 and mi write a message she: ‘Crissy, I don’t know what has happened but I feel something over me, and I can’t explain it but I’m asking you to be my wife’, ” Ryan Mark said.

Reynolds, who said she was under the anointing

when the message came in, thought it was the devil talking. Interestingly, she

had dreamt about him that night before she saw his text.

“I dream that you took me by the hand and said I must follow you and I followed you…” she said. “It troubled me because you weren’t a part of my life, and I wasn’t thinking of you at all… From the day I met you, everywhere I turn I see you… When you text mi the day mi seh, ‘No man, this nuh sound right.’ You seh ‘God seh’ mi a yuh wife and mi seh, ‘No sah a mussi di devil tell yuh dat.’ “

He had a concert in Portmore that weekend, and she went to have a talk with this fellow who was 14 years younger than her.

“She drove me home… I was still living with my parents, and we were outside in the car talking… I guess she was taken back like how could this man ask me to marry him and we don’t know each other. I found myself telling her, ‘Dawnette I know you are the one…I want to grow old and grey with you’, ” he said.

Reynolds added: “I was still very cautious because when you give your life to the Lord and the Lord separate you for a little while, you have to be very careful who you open up yourself to.”

She never accepted his proposal and spent the next four weeks praying about it.

“I was running like Tom and Jerry… mi did a run because mi did waan mek it right with God. Mi never waan get caught up… I wasn’t really praying about a husband yet, because mi just love up Jesus, mi just want Jesus, it was just this thing I was going through. So it’s like God just bring yuh to me because I was so focused on Him,” she said.

Her bishop told her to listen to God, and in

another post-midnight exchange, Reynolds called Mark to accept his hand in

marriage.

“After that we basically was in each

other’s face 24/7, up and down, getting to know each other,” he said.

They became husband and wife in February 2007.

“We call it divine intervention because nobody ask someone to marry to them that dem don’t know,” Mark said. “Furthermore, to get into the act of marriage in less than five months was big so when we were married we were literally strangers and it took us a while to get used to each other and know each other.”

Looking back, he said the proposal would have

been a recipe for disaster had God not been at the core.

“We’ve had our challenges, we’ve had our mistrust moments, up and downs, but God is with us and we continue to press,” he said.