After Shanna Holmes graduated in 1998 from Chinook High School, she pursued religious studies by attending Rocky Mountain Ministry Center in Choteau, Montana, and participated in a ministry-based internship program for two years from 2001-2003. Aside from a few volunteer positions with youth groups, however, she didn't pursue any ministry positions beyond that.

Instead, Holmes traveled to Oregon, where she worked as a vault teller at a bank. Here, in 2003 she met Tim Wiegman, who was the finance director for a local non-profit. "He would bring in deposits, and that's basically how we met," Hol...