Wedding #2

Edwin and Koyi's wedding was beautiful! My parents are very good friends with Edwin's uncle and aunt, the former Bishop Enok Shamapani and his wife Lastina. They raised Edwin, due to his parents not having the resources to. Edwin's parents were at the wedding and it was precious to see the love and closeness of the family. His parents are obviously very proud of him and very appreciative of Enok and Lastina.

The highlight for me was the message given by Rev Dennis Mweetwa, who is the Sikalongo Bible Institute principal. (SBI is where my Dad taught for a while on one of their previous trips here, and is where young men are trained to be pastors.) Edwin just graduated from SBI and was just recently assigned a church in Siavonga, about 250 km from Choma. Dennis's message centered on what a Christian marriage should be. He encouraged the husband to truly leave and cleave, and become one. He stressed the fact that marriage is 2 sinners living together. We must admit our sin and humble ourselves with each other and turn to Christ for forgiveness, grace and hope. He spoke of the importance of humility and teachableness, and open communication. It was refreshing to hear sin and grace preached about! The ceremony was just short of 2 hours long. The reception began at 14 hours and went till 18 hours, so we had a full day.

One interesting observation - Edwin wore black for the ceremony, but changed to a white suit for the reception! The line up (brides maids and groomsmen) also changed their attire for the ceremony.

There were about 300 people at the reception, and the church was quite full for the ceremony, but near that number. I enjoyed the music they had chosen for the wedding, most of it familar. She walked in to a Twila Paris song, Faithful Friend.
At both weddings, they make an event of signing the marriage license, going into a separate room with the minister and 2 witnesses in the middle of the service. Then after it was signed, the minister spoke a second message to them as a married couple.

This couple smiled more...especially the groom at the reception. The bride was still fairly serious, although she did smile here and there :)