Last Saturday, I had the privilege of officiating another wedding celebration. This time, it was Alan and Leah’s wedding. I didn’t really like Alan too much when he first visited the church. Why? He is one tall dude and I confess that I am a tall-ist. But, he is a good man.
Leah was one of our first visitors to Quest Church – six years ago. She later shared that she was so nervous that she circled the block several times before she walked in. The first dozen folks at Quest were all Koreans and one Chinese-American. I am thankful for Leah and another person for helping break the barrier. They knew that our commitment was to be a multiethnic church and they helped pave the way. Leah not only paved the way but she eventually took a pretty heavy pay reduction to leave her job to become our non-profit Q Cafe’s first cafe manager. I will never forget that.
Two years into her role as the cafe manager, she felt God’s call upon her life to enter into ordained ministry and become a pastor and despite some bumps along the way, she’s now a year away from receiving her seminary degree and blossoming in her role as one of the pastors of our church.
During their wedding [after their individual vows], they chose to recite this incredibly powerful vow together in unison:
Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you. For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me. [Ruth 1:16-17]
Congratulations and blessings to Alan and Leah. Thank you for your partnership in life and ministry.
Enjoy this amazing photo taken by Leo Chen. Our church community is blessed with numerous talented photographers and Leo is definitely one of them. Check him out if you’re looking for a photographer for weddings, portrait sessions, and model shoots. Leo promised me that I have an incredibly bright future in modeling. The second photo is one I took after their wedding as they couldn’t contain their joy.
Filed under: family, marriage, quest church
I am fighting back tears as I type, Leah looks so beautiful!
Alan and Leah, be blessed and continue to be a blessing.
Umm, I think Leo isn’t telling you the truth about your modeling career unless he was talking about hand modeling.
That first pic is one BEAUTIFUL wedding picture! WOW! (((((HUGS))))) and thanks for sharing! ~sandi
thanks pe for the blog post…you may have a future as a photographer yourself!
also, thanks for doing such an amazing job officiating our wedding. it was a joy and honor to have you perform the ceremony, and for minhee to read the gospel for us. we feel very blessed to have had your family witness to, and to a large degree responsible for, the beginning of our marriage.
The first photo looks really good. The second looks scary