Orphanos Foundation

Apart for the holidays...

posted by Wayne Sneed — December 4th, 2009

Weddings are found at both the very beginning of the Bible and also the very end.  In Genesis we see God creating man, and then creating woman, and then uniting the two telling them to be fruitful and multiply.  So marriage is God’s idea; He is the Creator.  At the end of the Bible in Revelation 19 we see the last wedding in history when the Lamb, Jesus Christ Himself marries His bride, the church!  In this portion of scripture we can see the massive celebration in heaven at this wedding feast for Jesus and His bride.  Many are crying out praises to our God and King, not only because He is worthy simply for who He is, but also because of what He has accomplished for His bride.  It’s truly stunning, but in Ephesians 5 Paul tells us that because of Christ’s death on the cross, His bride at the great wedding feast of the lamb will be spotless, blameless, and wrinkle free.  Paul says that Jesus will present his bride “in all her glory” at that great wedding celebration.  No wonder there is such loud praise before the throne.  The bride will be glorious, and everyone will see her in that glory; but it’s a glory that came at a great price.  So while the multitude in heaven will be impressed with the glory of the bride, it will be the unspeakable gift of the Lamb that elicits thunderous praise.  Hallelujah!  Worthy is the Lamb!

So why all this talk of weddings?  Over thanksgiving the Sneed family went in two different directions.  Audrey and Wayne traveled to Lar Batista (Brazil) to officiate at a wedding of the daughter of the Pai (dad) at the home.  Wayne committed to do this wedding last year, long before we knew Alyson was on the way.  Since  Aly is still way to young to travel internationally Angela and Aly went east to be with Angela's family. It wasn't fun to be apart from each other as a family during such a special holiday as Thanksgiving, still individually we each had a nice holiday.  Lest anyone read unneccesarily between the lines and conclude something faulty.... we are all back home together now and doing very, very well.  But we can always use your prayers.  Satan is diligently crouching at our door waiting for an opportunity to divide and destroy.  Thanks for standing with us in prayer.

Since this is Wayne writing this blog, I'm going to write about our time in Brazil in more detail. We often don’t think about children in orphanages actually “growing up and getting married” but it happens.  And in fact when it does, it usually represents a success story in the history of the home.  Children who live on the streets rarely find love and happiness in God’s blessed institution of marriage.While Marta (the bride) is a biological child of Pastor Fragoso, she still grew up at Lar as just one of the kids.  There have been over 600 in the last 30 years who have called Lar Batista home and Pastor and Mrs. Fragoso as dad and mom.  Over the years of Orphanos involvement with Lar Batista, I've been influential in coaching and mentoring Marta as she grew to be the lovely woman she is now.  So it was natural that she would ask me to officiate at her wedding to the handsome Beto, a fine Godly man indeed.  I am honored and pleased to have a small part in this special day for them.

 The next big thing on our calender is the Memphis Messiah.  In fact, its just a few days away on December 10-11.  This is really a huge undertaking involving litterally hundreds of volunteers and thousands of kids.  Please do pray for us that the event will go smoothly, and that the Messiah of whom we sing will be pleased by our attempts to bring Him praise.  He's done so much for us (note the first paragraph above) it's only fitting we invest everything we have into the worship and praise of our Redeemer.

The Sneed family would like to wish all of you a very worshipful Christmas season.  Stay focused on the one whose birthday we caim to celebrate.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangly dim, In the light of His Glory and Grace."

Merry Christmas!

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