Fingerprints on Wedding Preparations

It's nearly the end of November! Where did the year go? My final days as a single woman are flying by.

At the beginning of this month, immediately following the young women's retreat, Adolfo and I spent a couple of days in my hometown of Potosí, and I had the pleasure of showing him the houses I grew up in and the town so close to my heart!

Adolfo returned with me to La Paz where we were able to take care of several things for the wedding. We also got our engagement pictures taken by my sister (observe a couple of samples displayed above).

Last week my parents and brother Caleb arrived from Canada. With their arrival, wedding preparations went into full swing.

It's been exciting to see God's hand throughout this time. I want to praise Him for the things that have been falling into place:

• We have set things up with a public notary for the legal ceremony (in Bolivia there are two separate ceremonies: legal and religious)
• The Vargas family have agreed for the wedding to be held in the beautiful gardens of their retreat center in Valencia.
• We have signed a contract with a catering company who will take care of tents, tables, chairs, and the food!
• I will be using my mom's dress (a dream come true and a big savings!), which is currently having some alterations done to it.
• My wonderful dad helped me print out some lovely invitations!
• My mom found a beautiful dress that fits her and was less expensive than many of the dresses we saw (I was worried we would have difficulty finding a dress she liked, that fit, and that wasn't too expensive, so we prayed before we went out, and God led us to the dress!)

If any of you think of me and would like to join me in prayer for the wedding day, here are some specific prayer requests that I look forward to seeing God answer!

• That it would not rain for the wedding day.
• That the people who are meant to be at the wedding would be there (the optimal number of guests is 60, but there are more than 60 people on our wedding guest list, so I am trusting that God could make it so only 60 people would be able to come)
• That everyone would feel beautiful and relaxed and enjoy themselves!
• That everyone would be punctual (hair dresser, cosmetologist, public notary, guests, etc.)
• That everything would fall into place and that the program would run smoothly.
• MOST IMPORTANTLY: that God would be glorified throughout the day!!!

Young Women's Retreat

A week and a half has gone by, and I am finally sitting down to write about the young women's retreat in Potosi. Back in March, I was invited to share at a young women's retreat in the city of Potosí (where I grew up). It was originally going to be in late June but ended up being postponed to the end of October. I felt very honored by the invitation and at the same time inadequate as I lacked experience in public speaking. I felt especially intimidated when I discovered that Auntie Lori (a dear American missionary who I've known since I was little and who has always been like an aunt to me and my siblings) was going to be the other speaker. As always, I had nothing to worry about! God helped me through the sessions, and Auntie Lori's presence ended up being a great blessing!

The topic was "Relationship with God." I was excited about the subject and didn't have too much trouble coming up with material to speak on. I was in charge of three sessions. Each session I shared on a different key ingredient for a good relationship with God: Confidence/Trust, Communication, and Consecration (in which I talked about lives characterized by obedience and love). It was exciting to see how a lot of what Auntie Lori shared in her sessions tied in with and complimented what I was sharing. We didn't really coordinate, so it only could have been God!

In one of the sessions.

There was a group of just over 20 of us. The winning team of the retreat!

Auntie Lori and I with the four lovely ladies who organized the retreat!

One of the things I shared on was trust. Trust is key in any relationship. In order to trust someone it is necessary to know the person. It's the same with God. We can't trust Him if we don't really know Him! How do we get to know God? I encouraged the girls to keep their eyes open to see God revealing Himself through the Bible and through daily life experiences. I shared some of the experiences in my own life through which I got to know God better. It seems like God especially reveals Himself in the hard times. I spoke about my difficult experiences working at the deaf school last year and the more recent experience of losing my brother. I only have 26 years of life, but I am amazed at the life lessons God has already given me. May we all open our eyes to see God in our lives and then share Him with others!