Maid of Honour

When Kimberley asked me to be her maid of honour, I was super excited and felt very privileged.  I had a vague idea of what being a maid of honour was all about but as the months of wedding planning went by I got a much clearer idea.

A great commission 

Maid: a woman or girl employed to do domestic work, an unmarried girl or woman especially when young

Honour: hold in great respect, hold in high esteem, have a high regard for, look up to, think highly of;

Kimberley was asking me to take up a role of great love and service. Thank you for that privilege *wait, it’s a privilege to be a servant???* Yes, there is no greater privilege than to serve –the time and hard labour is nothing compared to the great love you have for the one you are serving.

I want to share with you the speech that I gave at Kimberley’s wedding, I was extremely nervous and was almost too scared to share it but I am glad I did :)

Maid of Honour Speech

Good Afternoon all, for those that don’t know me my name is Daisy and I have known Kimberley and Chiawuotu since 2009 I met them both at the Advanced Centre of Evangelism (ACE) (I actually met Chiawuotu first and Kimberley later on). However today I stand here as Kimberley’s maid of honour so the words I will share today will be directed towards Kimberley. When I first met Kimberley I didn’t speak to her much but I noticed straight away that she had a very close relationship with God and I remember she used to always refer to God in the second person. She would say things like “…When I was speaking to Him this morning…” or “I think so but I need to ask Him first”. To me it was quite remarkable to see a young person relate to God in such a close way.

Walking in happiness

Our friendship has grown tremendously over the years and Kimberley has become more than a friend to me, even more than a sister. She has always challenged me unto good works and has been one of the most influential characters in my walk with God. God has definitely given her a heart of service and love for her fellowmen. I remember during ACE, I asked Kimberley to wake me up every morning at 5am as at that time I wasn’t a morning person, and she committed to that every morning even when I didn’t want to get up. She taught me how to play guitar, she also taught me how to cook -I knew how to cook already but she taught me the science of cooking e.g how to develop recipes, how to experiment with ingredients, how to preserve food and stop wastage and also how to recover a failing recipe. Both Kimberley and Chiawuotu love cooking and are very gifted in this area so I pray that this is something they can work together on in order to help teach and minister to others. God has given Kimberley a passion for helping those she loves to grow and develop and those one to one sessions that I had with her I will always treasure.

It’s interesting because one of my most treasured memories was when Kimberley and Tara Marie came to visit me and somehow ended up living in my house for some time. It literally was the three of us in my room rotating between 2 single beds. And at night we would talk and talk and Kimberley would always be the one to say (in her sweet voice) “Ok can we go to sleep now and talk in the morning”. I remember going to get each of them a key cut and till this day my parents are still like “how did we let you get away with that”?!?!?! Nevertheless that was such a precious time in our friendship. 

Maid of Honour

But on a more serious note –

I have committed to pray for Kimberley every day during this wedding season and one of the things that God keeps bringing to my mind when I am praying for her union with Chiawuotu is Kimberley’s service as a missionary. Now when we think of missionaries we imagine someone who travels to foreign lands, who helps build schools and teach the bible to those who don’t have access to it; And Kimberley has definitely been involved in these things. However I think Kimberley’s biggest mission field, whether she realises it or not, has been the home.

I remember when Kimberley decided to look after a lady called Camille, who was quite ill, and she stayed in her house and helped her with the running of the home and also worked with her children. Shortly after that she decided to move to Leicester to look after her Grandfather. It’s interesting because I remember you  telling me the story of when you and your  family went to visit him and how you  felt when you all were waving him Goodbye and how your heart was touched and how you knew that God was calling you to move to Leicester to be with your Granddad. God has been very faithful to you Kimberley and we thank him for giving you the opportunity and the grace to make those sacrifices, to give of yourself and to put your wants and perhaps needs aside for the sake of someone else. I know that in both situations it wasn’t always easy and you met some challenges but I definitely believe that you learnt some enduring lessons on how to bring Christ into the home not only for your joy but for the joy of others. Often we want to do a big work with the masses and the most humblest work is often slighted, but Kimberley you have been faithful in the least and now God has blessed you with much. He has given you an even greater mission field, your own home with your husband Chiawuotu. I pray that you remember and implement everything that God has taught you while labouring for Camille and your granddad. All those lessons of kindness, forbearance, meekness, humility, patience, compassion and love - that they will be principle pillars of your home. Nothing is by chance Kimberley, God has been preparing you for this moment for a long time and we thank him so much for he provides for us even before we even think or ask. 

A precious gift and a promise from a special friend

Kimberley, my dearest, I love you. I praise God for this union and for this journey that you have begun I pray that all the blessings that God intends to bestow on the marriage union will be yours as you faithful walk together with the Lord bringing him into your home and your hearts daily. [Speech ends]

Kimberley it was such a blessing to serve you for these few months and not only to serve you as a dear friend and sister but to plan with you, talk with you, rush around with you, stress with you, pray with you…it was truly an honour. 

Forever Friends

Love you forever Kimberley Ham-Ying, oops I mean, Anyanwu :)

♥ Miss Daisy ♥

The voice of the Bridegroom and of the Bride: Mr and Mrs Anyanwu

A few weeks ago, I posted the courtship story of my friends Chiawuotu and Kimberley (click here to read); well they wedded on the 15^th of August in a beautiful ceremony in Cattrerick, North Yorkshire. Like most eventful days months or even years of planning is required however  the day itself with all its fun, happiness and excitement seems to just come and swiftly go. This event on the other hand was different; something about this day left an impression on the mind as it provided a glimpse of a much greater and more anticipated future event – the marriage supper of the lamb.

The Bride and Groom

The theme of the wedding was the parable of the 10 virgins found in Matthew 25: 1-13. A very fitting theme for a wedding as marriage in the bible is more than just the union of man and woman before God but it is a symbol or illustration of Christ’s relationship with the church.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself…This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:22-28,32

Happy are all who fear the Lord

The same illustration of the marriage relation is seen in the Old Testament where God is likened to the husband/bridegroom and His people/church are likened to the bride.

For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Isaiah 62:5 

For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. Isaiah 54:5

The Wait 

Chiawuotu was waiting patiently at the front of the church for his bride to arrive. The groomsmen entered followed by the flower girls and the bridesmaids, but where was his bride? All guests were seated and finally the church doors opened and there Kimberley was dressed in pure white ready to meet her groom. Chiawuotu declared his love for Kimberley and called her forth with a song that they had written together, the opening line of the song was “Happy are all who fear the Lord, they shall live by his will”. Hand in hand with her father Kimberley joined him in song as she gracefully made her way forward to meet Chiawuotu. They ended the song with the words “It’s the cry of midnight” which brought to mind the theme of the wedding and the words of the parable found in Matthew 25.

The bridegroom waiteth

The bride comes forth 

Chiawuotu and Kimberley made use of the symbols found in the parable of the ten virgins with a white and midnight blue colour scheme (blue representing God’s commandments – Numbers 15:38-40), the groomsmen were carrying white bibles and the bridesmaids were carrying small lanterns. Even the wedding date was symbolical of the parable (I’ll let you Adventist historians figure that one out J)

The Bridal Party

The parable reads - Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom…And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him…the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut…Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh. Matthew 25: 1, 6, 10,13

It would be good to read through the whole parable when you get a chance as there is a lot more to this parable than what is being discussed here, but this parable basically tells a story of waiting virgins /brides who are preparing to meet the bridegroom so that they may enter into the marriage supper with him. A call goes out at midnight to signify the coming of the bridegroom and the brides who were faithfully waiting and who had prepared for him were ready to enter with him into the wedding. Likewise with us we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and as a bride prepares for her wedding day by making herself ready to meet the groom and keeping her dress white. We too are to wait patiently for the coming of our Lord, keeping our garments white (Revelation 19:8) and being ready to meet Jesus when he comes.

As we wait for Christ he is also waiting for us – James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 

The Wedding Ceremony 

Before Kimberley was given away, her father gave a touching speech about Kimberley’s family life, her personality, her foreign mission service and her love for God and Chiawuotu. The two came together at the marriage altar and stood as an emblem of purity and fidelity. Their lives and their conduct during their season of courtship served as a witness of God’s faithfulness and a demonstration that God’s ways are truly perfect , and His ideals are higher than what the human mind or the world can tell.

They shared their own personal vows such as: “I promise to stay close to Christ through daily communion, the study of God’s word and daily surrender that the love that I give may come from God and that we may work together intelligently for the salvation of souls.”, “I promise to be pure in thought, action and feelings ever being faithful to the seventh commandment.”, I promise to forgive always and not to coldly draw away when mistakes are made but to instead draw closer to each other during those times.” And “I promise to become intelligent in regards to disease, it’s prevention and its treatment that I may do all in my power to restore and preserve our health, and that we may work together to make our home and our marriage a ministry of healing for others.” These precious promises were sealed with a kiss (their very first kiss J).

Entering into a precious covenant 

This day was extra special to me because even though it was Chiawuotu and Kimberley’s wedding they moved the focus from themselves and pointed us to Christ, the real bridegroom who first loved us and emptied himself completely that he may gain us - His bride. More precious than the covenant and commitment they made to each other before God, was the deep impressions of the spirt of God on the hearts of all guests and witnesses that awakened a deeper desire to walk faithfully before God and to receive him – the bridegroom - as our great reward. 

Mr and Mrs Anyanwu

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready… Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

 Revelation 19: 7, 9

My picture with the newly weds

Congratulations Chiawuotu and Kimberley Anyanwu, may your married life have an influence for time and for eternity. 

With overflowing love,

 ♥ Miss Daisy  ♥

p.s The wedding ceremony was recorded via live stream to watch this special event please click here.

Choosing to love always: A small brush with racism

I want to share an experience I had a few weeks ago and to tell you how God turned things around in order to teach me an enduring life lesson. What I share is not intended to be an attack on any individual or group of individuals (as I love you all J) but I believe that if you have ever experienced hateful/abusive words, looks, actions etc you can definitely relate to this post and I hope we can agree on the conclusion of the matter.

So here’s how the story goes….

It was Sabbath (Saturday) and after church some friends and I planned to attend another church to help out with their afternoon health program. I wasn’t too sure where the church was so I decided to follow behind my friend’s car; my friend is known for being a fast driver so I wanted to stay as close as possible to their car. We stopped at a roundabout and my friend was able to go straight through but I had to stop. While I was waiting to go through a young couple with a baby decided to cross the road, the woman ran across with her pram and then the man began to walk across very slowly (remember this isn’t a pedestrian crossing so I had right of way). I started to creep forward not to imply “hurry up I’m going to run you over” but to try and catch up with my friend as my mind was so focused on not being left behind. He finally got to the other side and I prepared to race off when I heard in my left ear all sorts of profanity and the sentence “Can’t you wait you stupid black *blank*!” as I sped away.

I felt like it all happened in a split second and within that time I managed to catch a glimpse of his face and he looked extremely angry! My initial reaction was “Wow! How come I didn’t react or retaliate??”  I wondered if the man even questioned whether I heard him.  It definitely was God’s grace that came to my aid because I know my natural response would have been to turn the car around (somehow) and confront him or call the police – basically make an extremely big deal out of the situation. So I was very encouraged and thankful to God for helping me deal with the situation in the best way. However as I continued driving hurt and sadness began to sink in, I began to remember a conversation that I had with a friend that very week. He was telling me that he has experienced a lot of racism while living in Wales and I was telling him that I find the people here, from young to old, to be very friendly and loving and that I have never experienced racism or any form of abuse since moving here. In fact I realised that I have never directly experienced any form of racism.

Ok…I know some may look at this situation and think "He just called you a black “something” it's hardly racial abuse" but what that man wanted to do was to curse me and show his displeasure and anger and my race was a platform for that and that is what I found hurtful. I was reasoning in my mind if I did do something stupid it would be because I am a stupid person not because of the colour of my skin. However hate doesn't reason like that, it merely seeks to hit you where it hurts. I know I am not completely blameless in this story as I know that creeping forward was what set him off.

The next day was very challenging for me as I kept on hearing his sentence over and over again in my mind and imagining his angry face. I experienced many emotions that day as I went from upset to OK to angry and almost hateful. I began reasoning in my mind that maybe I shouldn’t go into work as I felt my colleagues just tolerated me but deep down didn’t really like me or want me there.

*Note – Be careful with evil thoughts, they are not your thoughts and if you ponder on them they will become your own thoughts and you will begin to believe things that are wholly untrue and irrational.

Providentially I watched an online news special that day which was showing an African American lady being extremely hateful towards a white American who went into her barber shop to meet her African American boyfriend. It wasn’t a nice thing to witness and towards the end of the report I thought to myself “Right, that’s enough!  Everybody has a choice and this is mine – I will not, in fact I refuse to participate in someone else’s hate when the option to love is there, so I choose to love.” All hate does is breed more hate for example the man at the roundabout showed hatred towards me, then I take that and go on to pass that onto my colleagues at work and then they go on to pass it to many others. I honestly can’t be a participant in that; it takes too much time and energy and strips you of your peace.

 

 

Yes hateful words and actions do hurt and cause pain but so do hateful responses. We may think “Yes I’ve got that person back, and showed them what I am made of!” but has responding in the same way provided any consolation?  Are we any happier now?

God took this lesson beyond race and my experience that Sabbath and challenged my thinking even further with this scripture –

For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Luke 6:32-37  

 

True love is distinctive and goes beyond that which is reciprocated. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can “love” those who love them back and treat them well but the love that conquers all can love irrespective of cold and callous treatment. This is a hard concept to come to grips with and challenging but nevertheless it is very true and attainable and I believe that Christ can make this kind of love a reality in our lives...if we choose.

As hurtful as my experience was I believe God allowed it to happen to show me what it really means to love and to challenge me with these questions (join me and ask yourselves these questions too) -  Do I choose to love always? Do I combat hateful behaviour with love? Do I draw warmth from the coldness of others? Is my response to sinful or hateful behaviour telling of the Christian faith I profess?

There is so much hate in this world and much more to come. There’s not much we can do about that but we do have a choice! So let’s choose to love…always.

 

But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Luke 6:27-28

 

Love, your girl forever,

♥ Miss Daisy ♥