VIVA LOS NOVIOS!!!

This week was busy!! We’ve been planning for weeks for the wedding of Hector y Noelia (see my post on September 30th). Finally this weekend was the big event. A few weeks ago we made invitations, souvenirs, decorations, bows (as an aside about bows…the Spanish word for bow is “laso” except in Argentina they use “moños” which is very similar to the Spanish word for monkey, mono) so I had fun talking about moños for monos) on everything! Lots of shopping and we made food and food and more food. I can finally say I’ve hard boiled three dozen eggs and built 50 sandwiches for which God cut the ham like we asked him to. It was three days before the wedding and we finally got a hold of a meat slicer and on Thursday God put it in our hands, a little oil and a new plug later, God sent someone to chop it for us too! It’s a certain sort of accomplishment I think. We stressed and planned and everything came together perfectly. As it always does because He does all things well. The bride was only about 5 minutes late to the ceremony and they said their vows before God and everyone.

Because the Evangelical Christian church isn’t recognized in Spain as an official institution, they had to be married legally in the courthouse. We waited in the lobby for about 20 minutes taking pictures and then got called in. Sat down facing the judge. He talked really super fast in Spanish. Two minutes later they stood up and kissed and we were sent packing. Haha. On to the next!! That was done on Friday, but they didn’t consider themselves married until after the ceremony in the church on Saturday. It was a great mixture of cultures and traditions. At the reception, the groom thanked everyone for visiting and mentioned the many cultures and countries represented in 50 people in the room (England, Korea, Spain, America, Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia and probably more I wasn’t aware of). We toasted “las naciones”. It was great!!! That was my favorite part. Another Spanish tradition is during the reception someone will yell out “Viva Los Novios!” (Long live the bride and groom!!) and everyone replies “VIVA!!” That was amazing!

I will put more pictures when I get them, but here's the bride and groom and her family at the civil ceremony. She bought her gown in Africa.

Prayer Requests/Praises:
Our first Sunday of bible study in English was last week and it was awesome!! Everyone showed up. There were good questions, good comments. They seemed to really want this type of study. Pray that there’s fruit and growth that comes from our time together reading His Word.

Spanish language learning is coming along swimmingly. Classes are going well and I enjoy them, but I’m learning the most through living and working with Spanish speakers every day. I’ve already learned so much!