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playing quarterback at Notre Dame in the early 1980s. He decided to transfer to an other school in search of more playing time and was lured to Tulane by a coach who had re cruited him out of high school for the University of Pittsburgh. "I knew the coach and the system and just felt comfortable with it;' Ken said. While taking a marketing class together, Pauline took note of Ken and decided she wanted to meet him. "We were truly friends;' she said. "That's the relationship we had:' At that point Ken was a pro fessing Christian and Pauline was still unsettled about where she was. "I was just raised in a dif ferent background and didn't know Jesus like he seemed to know Him;' Pauline said. That all changed in a very dramatic way. Ken was interested in a deep er relationship with Pauline, but knew that couldn't happen until she came to know Christ.

Y ou would be wasting your time telling Ken and Pauline Karcher that God hasn't had His hand on their lives in a very evident way. How else could a cheerleader from New York and a football star from Pittsburgh wind up meeting at a college in New Or leans? How else could God take one huge heartbreak in Ken's life to bring Christ into Pauline's? How else could a devastating life-changing event that sent them both into a dark place, result in them loving life, each other and God even more? "There's been a plan all along:' said Ken, who just com pleted his third season as head football coach at East Central Community College, guiding the Warriors to an 8-3 mark in 2015, including a win in the Heart of Texas Bowl. Twenty-nine years after say ing 'I do" the Karchers still give

each other glances across the room usually reserved for new lyweds. "We are best friends;' said Ken. "We were friends even before we started dating and through all the things of life we have just grown closer:' Pauline agreed. "It's been a journey;' she said, with a smile. She is currently the director of the Crisis Preg nancy Center in Philadelphia. "Not everyone can be a coach's wife. You either can or you can't. He kind of married a little wandering gypsy. I always wanted to go to all 50 states, and we've been to a lot of them:' While the Karchers' journey from the campus ofTulane Uni versity in New Orleans to their current lives in Decatur, Miss., is an amazing story in itself, how they became husband and wife took some divine interven tion. Ken had come to a sav ing knowledge of Jesus Christ

"The very first gift he ever gave me was a Bible;' she said with a smile. In his infancy of Christianity, Ken was still learning to under stand God. "I just asked God to do what ever it took to bring her to Je sus:' he said. Ken was looking forward to the NFL draft, awaiting to know which professional uniform he would soon be wearing. "I was projected to go in the first three rounds;' he said. "Thirty-three quarterbacks' names were called and mine wasn't one of them. I will nev er forget that.date - April 29,

6 - NESHOBA MAGAZINE