Shuar Wedding

Saturday was a big day for Emanuel Church plant in a city outside of Macas! It was the very first wedding of this small church in the Shuar community. The Gutierrez family, Sarah, Karina, Alyssa and I went early that morning to the market to buy flowers to decorate and then headed out to the country side. (by the way--a dozen roses only cost $5 here!) This is Joshua posing in front of the venue we were to transform into a beautiful wedding!

And the work began!

This was mine and Alyssa's big project

Then lunch was served--yucca and pork on big green leaves!

Then, we traveled back to Macas to change for the wedding and the sweet ceremony began.

After the ceremony, Wendy was in charge of leading the games for the guests! Married couples had to race against each other to see who could eat the apple on the string without their hands the fastest! Robin and Wendy were asked to demonstrate first! :)

Then, all the guests walked down the dirt road to the family's home to eat soup, rice, and chicken!

Sunday was my first worship service in Macas, and what a blessing it was! Worshipping in another language is such a neat experience. Even though I didn't know all of the songs, I could understand some of the sweet words of praise. God is so good!! What a beautiful way to spend my (23!!!) birthday, worshipping Jesus with Spanish praises! I am looking forward to being able to comprehend more soon! It's amazing how quickly I can pick up phrases, being surrounded and forced to practice! :)

Thank you for your prayers! I can really feel them. I can realize even more now how blessed I am with such encouraging friends and family. Please continue to pray for the children and parents who will be a part of our summer school/VBS next week. Also pray for families to notice a difference in the church here and desire to know more about Christ.

Love you all!
-Laura