My pastor Doug Shantz, Barry, and meBarry and I had the distinct honor (and fun!) of being the first people that Doug married. He was understandably nervous but did such a great job. We had been engaged for two years, me living in Toronto, Canada, and Barry living in the western United States. Barry came to Canada about 2 weeks before the wedding so that we could take care of last-minute details -- like marriage counseling! Doug had several counseling sessions with us and assigned us books to read and homework to do.
It was our appointed evening for our next session with him, and I told Barry I wanted us to wear the matching skirt and shirt we had. All the dresses for our wedding were purchased in Liberia (a joint effort between our mothers). This skirt and shirt must have been bought for us at the same time, but right now I cannot remember the details about them. (Maybe someone can remind me??) We arrived at the church for our session, and ... another surprise! All the men and ladies of the church were there to give us a wedding shower!
The church basement was beautifully decorated on the theme of a "wishing well," and there was no way I could have thought of wishing for all the wonderful things we got that night. There were some very fun-loving folk in that congregation, too, and they put forth some of their very best efforts for us! (Check out the inflatable Blue Jay baseball player standing in front of the wishing well!)Our wonderful friends filled that wishing well to overflowing and gave us an evening we won't ever forget.
6 comments:
This is such a fun series of posts for me to see! I will make sure Mom keeps up with your blog. She was here yesterday when Charolyn and her gals dropped in for the afternoon. But since the purpose of the visit was getting together with others, we didn't do computer stuff at all.
The Beulah days will always be in a slot of their own! Such uncomfortable days in some ways, especially for me, as I had such a struggle adapting to Canada and learning to be confident in this culture! I can't think of a "safer" place to be a misfit than at Beulah because they loved people there and gushed over them and included them.
Getting that between-cities bus each week was such fun. Do you remember the driver who looked for us? We were a smidgeon late one day and his bus swooped by the end of our street! You and I stopped in our tracks as the horrible truth sank in of having missed our one and only chance to get to Beulah that day. As we stood, stunned, staring down the road at the empty intersection, all of a sudden the great big green behind of the bus came backing up into view! He had looked down the street and seen us, and since the there was almost no traffic, he backed his bus up to get us! That was such a happy moment!
Another time he had his whole face bandaged up. We asked him what happened and he said, "I was talkin' when I should've been listenin'!"
Oh, Carol-Ann, I do love your additions to my posts! Yes, I remember that bus driver! He will never know what his kindness meant to us! I could just have hugged him that day when he backed the bus up! It is not often that you have two overwhelming emotions back to back like that, the second totally eclipsing the first! We were aghast at having missed the bus! We had jobs to do that day at Beulah, and I think, too, we depended greatly on getting together with that group of people every Sunday. It was a huge feeling of despair and loss, totally and completely squelched by joy, delight, and relief at the sight of that big bus backing up!! I love that memory!
You have said it just right about the kind of place Beulah was. Even when I moved so far away, it took me a long time to be willing to give up my membership there.
What a beautiful memory! And I love the matching shirt and skirt! I think they would be in style today . . .
Isn't it wonderful to have a loving, caring church family?
The skirt and shirt might be in style now, as opposed to that tie-dye overall thing Coral had to wear!! (It's a previous "Picture of the Day," for those who have not seen it!)
Yes, Renae! It is wonderful. I know some people never find a church family like that.
"By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35) It is not how smart or cultured or talented or perfect we are...
Can you believe the hair on that girl!
Ha ha, Carol-Ann! I forgot it looked that good! I guess, truthfully, I never knew it looked that good, as I never really saw it from the back!!
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