Friday, we celebrated the marriage of two young people. Stan is a young man whom I have known for several years. He has been a camper, seminar attendee, studied in the lay-leader Bible schools, the carpentry school, a faithful youth leader overseeing the ministries of 5 churches, leading a new church plant, and most recently a camp counselor.
During camp just this past summer, he pulled me aside to ask advice about getting married. It seemed he was not wanting to rush into it and end up with just any girl, but his parents were concerned that he was still single. It is also hard for him as the leader of the church plant to be single. Not long later, he met one of our older campers and as you might say, “The rest is history!”
Delaya is a young girl from my home church. She has been a faithful choir leader and attended several camps. This year she was definitely an example to younger campers. 
Myself and my Youth Director, Pastor Simwanza with the newlyweds.
They both worked hard to memorize their wedding vows.
This cousin of the bride’s father, stood in on behalf of the family. That’s normal here. He gave the bride away and at the celebration at the house later, he gave the groom an arrow.
This arrow is very symbolic. It means the groom finished paying for the bride. It used to be the object that symbolized the marriage and if the husband had a problem with his wife and wanted to return her, he would give the arrow back. If he died then the arrow and wife would be inherited (redeemed) by a close relative. Much like the story of Ruth and the kinsman redeemer.
Just before the groom took his bride away, they had to hear advice from their elders. Here the bride’s grandparents are advising them on married life and reminding them to respect their families, etc.… The Grandmother gave a symbolic staff to the bride and also a small three-legged stool which is carried by a female cousin of the bride who will escort the bride all the way to her new home.
In this case the groom came from a long ways away. Even with renting a couple cars, they had to hike several hours down a steep mountain escarpment. The groom couldn’t get enough money for the entire trip but had a car waiting once they reached the valley. At the reception everyone took up an offering and got just enough money to rent a truck that would bring them to the edge of the mountain and save a couple hours of walking for the wedding party. The bride and groom are in the front seat and in the back are a few of the grooms relatives that followed as well as several of the bride’s family and friend that were escorting them the rest of the way.
When they arrived at the groom's home around 11:00 p.m. there were several Spiritual Battles to be fought. The pastor's did an excellent job of helping out, but the village is new the Christ. The family was demanding several traditions which the church leaders and the groom knew would involve some level of witchcraft. He had already set down some boundaries with his parents before the wedding. For the first couple days there were several meetings between extended family of the groom about traditions they expected. The pastors and church leaders helped in many ways. They advised on ways that certain aspects of tradition could be held while not compromising spiritually. There were other times where they made their presence known so the old grandmother's couldn't get a chance to do things that would involve spiritual components of their pagan background.
Praise the Lord for Stan and for his strong stance for the Lord. Pray for the newlyweds as they continue to battle pagan traditions and take a stand for their Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment