October 1, 2010
Hello! Just this morning I could hear through our office window the sound of the Omaha wind moving the trees across the street, signaling the start of another blustery fall here on the prairie. Yay! With fall comes our wedding! Calvin and I are in the last week of preparations for getting married and we are so excited!
My favorite part of the planning has been planning our ceremony. As we picked songs for the service I really wanted to use a hymn for the processional in lieu of the Bridal March. One of the hymns we chose is called The Servant Song by Richard Gillard. To me the hymn speaks to not just our marriage relationship and the way that we want to serve each other, but to the life that we want to have in the world. It seems like a love song for what it means to seek true, authentic relationships in the world, a longing that I sense all around us in this increasingly disconnected society. The tune is available in a few places on the internet, including on YouTube listed as “The Servant Song.”
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you? Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
We are pilgrims on a journey, we are travelers on the road, we are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.
I will hold the Christ- light for you in the nighttime of your fear, I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping; when you laugh I’ll laugh with you. I will share your joy and sorrow ’til we’ve seen this journey through.
When we sing to God in heaven we shall find such harmony, born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you; pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant too.
When Calvin and I first became friends, as we were planning to live and work with Word Made Flesh in Nepal together, we talked a lot about being on a journey. At the time we had no idea our journey was a road to marriage! J In retrospect, the sweetness of that friendship and our shared calling to serve Jesus among people who are suffering was good soil that God used to plant our marriage.
Today our journeys have grown and changed a lot. We are so grateful to be getting married in Omaha, the place where our vocations together have called us. We will continue to serve; myself with Word Made Flesh and Calvin with InCommon Community Development. We’ll continue to live in the Park Ave neighborhood in Omaha, rooted in this place and community of people around us.
Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. For help remembering to pray I’ve enclosed the brand new prayer card for the Admin department of Word Made Flesh for you. The yellow color of the bird symbolizes “Service,” one of WMF’s nine Lifestyle Celebrations.
Peace and Love. Liz