Holy Week and a Wedding!

My parents left Maundy Thursday. We considered going to church the next day since they had a service for Good Friday, but did not. The problem was the guaguas. You see, in the Dominican Republic, as in many Latin countries, Good Friday is the big holiday. Everyone takes off of work- including the choferes (bus drivers). Everyone spends the day contemplating the death of Jesus and that's where it ends. By Sunday all has been forgotten for another year. Thank the Lord he has given us the Good News so that the story does not end there for us!

On Saturday we made habichuelas con dulce (sweet creamed beans). It is a traditional Holy Week drink/soup here. It is made with sweet potatoes from the indigenous people, spices and beans from Spain, and coconut milk from Africa. Our quest was to keep it from tasting like beans. We did okay but it is not going to be a staple... Here is our adventure attempting to make it:

We chose to have our own worship service- Keith, Beth, Andrew, Steve and I along with my roommate Katie. We read the Good Friday readings from the Bible, sang some favorite hymns, and Andrew read his dad's Good Friday sermon. After that we had some pumpkin pie that I had made and hung out for a while. Don't worry- our story doesn't end there as with much of the DR. Take a look at our Easter morning sunrise:

Thank God for bringing us to Cordero de Dios, our WELS church here! We were blessed to rejoice with our Dominican brothers and sisters in Christ by watching Road to Emmaus in Spanish and singing some of our beloved Easter hymns. We have been so thankful time and time again for this congregation!

The next Sunday we arrived shortly after the service began. As we approached we noticed a veil in the front of the room! No one told us there was going to be a wedding! We were SO excited! Weddings in the lower class here are nothing like what we are used to. The bride and groom dress in a suit and wedding dress- probably rented or borrowed. There was a large cake (mostly made of a frosted inedible filler thing) and some balloons to decorate. The simplicity however did not diminish the beauty of the ceremony or the anticipation of our own- in 71 days!!!
The beautiful young (17-year-old) bride and her groom: