Married at MoBap: Hayley and Isaiah Barnfield

Ring by spring, the swing and the MRS degree all apply to couples at Missouri Baptist University. Today as we land on Valentine’s Day, MBU Timeline concludes its four-day series on students who met at MBU and ultimately found their way down the wedding aisle.

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Thanks for following this week’s “Married at MoBap” series, the mostly widely read series of the school year for MBU Timeline.

Today, Valentine’s Day, enjoy the last one featuring Hayley, a 2012 graduate, and Isaiah Barnfield, a 2013 music ministry graduate.

I got to see the couple’s growth first hand, and everyone needs to see something like that. It was my freshman year, four years ago, when Isaiah came to North Hall, the women’s dormitory, with good news. “She said yes,” said Isaiah.

Congratulations came from all sides of the lobby area.

I was excited too. I just had one question.

“Who said yes?” I asked. After realizing Hayley was sitting on the couch, I recognized how silly that question was. The two have been dating since high school, and everyone knew them.

We laughed and the laughing stopped, eventually. However, their story continues.

Hayley Barnfield

Here’s her “Married at MoBap” story, in her own words:

Well, I moved to West Frankfort when I was in seventh grade and that was when I met Isaiah Barnfield, but I never really talked to him until high school because I was shy and didn’t really talk much to others except my small group of friends, and I don’t remember him being in very many of my junior high classes.

In high school we were in Show Choir together and my sophomore year of high school I did the musical.

So that was when I really started talking to him and really meeting him.

So we knew that we liked each other but I was 15 and I wasn’t allowed to date until I was 16 and my birthday wasn’t until the summer.

So we would see each other at school and musical practices and church and places like that, but he waited until my birthday and then asked me out and we started dating.

So basically, we have been together since we were 16, but we did break up and get back together a few times junior year and the beginning of senior year. You know, the typical immature high school dating.

But our senior year of high school he asked me back out officially on Feb. 7, 2008. Yes, I’m one of those girls who remembers the dates. And we have been together ever since.

After high school he went to Rend Lake College and I went to John A. Community College. So we went to community college for two years.

With our college schedules, even though we only lived 10 minutes apart, it was hard because there were times we didn’t get to see each other for as much as we would like because we were at different schools.

So we knew we wanted to go to the same university so that we could be together. We looked at a few schools and we decided to go to MoBap.

So we lived on campus in the dorms and loved living the college life of living on campus and being a part of a student community.

So it was our second year living in the dorms and after that year I would only have one more semester to student teach and he had one more full year.

On March 29, 2012, we went out on a date. He took me to see “The Hunger Games.”

Then we went to Culver’s to get ice cream to go. We took it to a park and sat on a park bench to eat it.

He then pulled out his iPod and asked me to listen to a song he had recorded and in about 2 minutes he was down on one knee in front of me proposing along with the song that he had written. And of course I said Yes!

So we headed back to the dorms excited to tell all of our friends.

I first found my sister and told her because she also went to MoBap, and then we found our friends.

We each had two friends from MoBap who we had in our wedding party. We loved having MoBap as one of our adventures in our relationship.

Isaiah Barnfield

Now his “Married at MoBap” story, in his own words:

We aren’t the typical college couple.

Hayley and I actually had been dating since high school before coming to Mobap. It’s funny actually.

I remember that my best friend had a huge crush on Hayley’s twin sister.

We were all in a high school musical at the time.

Hayley wasn’t allowed to date, so my friend and I would send notes to Hayley and her sister by giving them to their little brother at play practice.

Eventually, I asked Hayley to be my girlfriend. We dated on and off since her 16th birthday.

We shared the same values and faith throughout our relationship. We both ended up going to MoBap.

We knew that MoBap would be an encouraging and Christ-centered environment where we could grow closer to each other, as well as grow in our relationships with God.

During my junior year at MoBap, I bought a ring.

I remember being scared to hold onto it till I had the chance to ask her to marry me.

Brandon Van Marel actually locked it in his apartment for me so I wouldn’t be able to lose it.

Finally, I got the chance to ask and she said yes.

Since then we have been learning how to live and serve together.

It has been a blast so far.

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As today is Valentine’s Day, this concludes our four-day series on “Married at MoBap.” As I have interviewed students and former students, I have come to appreciate the important role Missouri Baptist University serves in these lifelong relationships. I hope you have enjoyed reading this series as much as I have enjoyed bringing it to you.

–Cassie Nesbit