Three activities in one weekend

This past weekend we went to Ciudad del Este. It is a city near Foz de Iguazu (Brazil) and Puerto Iguazu (Argentina). The pastor called us a couple of months ago to tell us about his brother-in-law and sister who want to be married and then baptized along with their older daughter. (They have another boy and girl.)

A couple of days later he called to tell us that he and his wife wanted to be married, also! He asked Oscar to do the wedding ceremony. That kind of surprised us! We thought that they WERE married...and they were, but only in a Civil Wedding. Because of Paraguay's religious traditions a couple will marry in the civil court according to the law, but their "real" wedding is the church wedding and blessing. So, yes, the pastor was married 15 years ago, but not in a church wedding. They have two girls, 13 and 10.

They prepared a huge wedding and asked us to decorate the church...something we NEVER did all alone. We always had help. They had two cakes, a fruit table and barbecued chicken and beef along with three salads. One of the brides actually dressed in a long, cream-colored dress and had flowers in her hand. This couple also had their civil wedding a few minutes before the church wedding. (They were never married legally, but just living together. She did not want to marry him if he didn't get his act together.) The pastor and his wife also went up front, but only asked for a blessing on their family and marriage. This was their "real" wedding.

The next day was the baptism. This couple's oldest (14 year old) daughter actually insisted on them coming to church. The bride (the pastor's sister) wanted change in their marriage. The groom (from a Baptist family back round) always remembered his father preaching to him, but didn't want to change his drinking habits. Their daughter prayed, believed and helped her parents understand God's saving grace. The three of them were baptized on Sunday.

It was such a happy, beautiful weekend.

(I have been jumping up and down about 15 times dealing with a toddler. If this sounds choppy, I'm sooo sorry. I will write more when the little one is asleep!)