Anniversary
Hello, faithful readers. As you can tell by the decreasing frequency of our posts, things continue to be crazy. However, after receiving a few pleas (and at least one threat), I decided to set aside a few minutes to give you all an update on the last few days.
Friday night, we took our youth group to Pizza Hut. Now, ever since I was old enough to chew, Pizza Hut pizza has been one of my favorite delicacies, and after a solid month of chicken, seafood, Greek salad, olives, and other admittedly-delicious-yet-relatively-bland-and-healthy fare, it was a welcome change to ingest some good old-fashioned American grease! Yum. Poor Leia is still on a dairy-free and not-much-bread regimen, so she had to settle for a small thin-crust pizza with no cheese, which is not nearly as much fun. :-(
Saturday we had lunch with two couples, one of whom are very close friends of Leia's. The second couple had two small children with them in the restaurant, which only served to reinforce our conviction that we want to just enjoy marriage for a couple of years before adding kids to the mix (although I think all of our parents are already in full-fledged "we want grandkids NOW" mode).
On Sunday we attended a city-wide ecumenical Christian celebration at a local hotel. It was a very cool scene—English folk, Greek Cypriots, Filipinos, Sri Lankans, Africans, and one very tall American, all worshipping together in various languages and cultural forms. Wonderful vibe of unity, although our enthusiasm was tempered a bit by the fact that we were sitting directly under one of the main speakers, which had been cranked up to somewhere between "jackhammer" and "jet engine."
I've wracked my brain, but I have absolutely no idea what we did on Monday. I guess it must not have been too exciting...
Yesterday we ran down to Limassol once again to get the tailor started on the waistcoats that my groomsmen and I will wear for the wedding. I think we'll both be very relieved when this wedding is over so we can go through a few days in a row without asking, "which city are we driving to today, again?"
Which brings us up to this afternoon. Leia has gone off to have another fitting done with her wedding dress, which I am expressly forbidden to see before the ceremony starts, hence all the free time I have to blog. ;-) Tonight we're going to Starbucks to relax with some sort of iced drink (we're in the midst of a heat wave at the moment) and plan our youth group lesson for Friday.
Today also marks the one-year anniversary of the night that Leia and I officially became a couple after attending an Atlanta Braves game (thank you Jason, Teresa, and Faith). It seems like yesterday. . . it seems like a decade ago. We're both really grateful for the past year, and for all the great people we've been able to share it with. Can't wait to celebrate the culmination of all of this with all of you. We love and miss you.
–John
You are invited...
So the last few days have been a bit of a blur as the task of inviting people has become quite overwhelming. In Cyprus, you have to actually place the invitation into people's hands as opposed to sending it through the mail because they can get offended.... sounds strange, I know, but what can you do?!
Sunday is a great example of how crazy this can all get. Both my parents are from the coastal town of Limassol and it was the first church my dad pastored when they moved here 15 years ago. Anyway, you can imagine the list of friends and family to be found there. Fortunately, my Gran is the social bee of the century and has had a great time visiting almost all the relatives and inviting them to her grandaughter's wedding! Anyway, she loves an excuse to galavant so she did most of the work for us but we had a few remaining. Our day began at 8.45 am when we left Nicosia and arrived at 10am just as the first church service was starting. This group of people consists mostly of our friends so it was pretty cool hanging out with them. At 12am, as their service ended and we were saying our goodbyes, we had to rush off to another church which was scheduled to finish at the same time. Unbeknownst to us, our presence (actually mostly Mum and Dad's coz they're more known than me and John!) had been announced so when we slipped in the back door and realised this service was just getting going, (after an already two hour and a half warm up!) panic struck! Because John and I are such heathens (my Cleveland friends do not have to agree so fervently!), we snuck out and left the old folks to it! Needless to say, my Gran was very welcoming and was happy to feed us while we waited for them to finish!! Then later that day after we all awoke from our afternoon kip on the couch, we visited two Greek-speaking uncles' houses and didn't get home until 10pm! Phew... just writing about it makes me twitch!
So, Monday, Tuesday was pretty crazy as we ran around doing random wedding jobs. Mum and Dad, bless their hearts, have been visiting other towns like Larnaca and some mountain villages, giving out invites to friends and church folk. John and I have the weekend shift where we're meeting up with two different sets of friends on Saturday for lunch and then dinner.
Today, we escaped to the beach (notice how this is becoming a weekly occurence) and John actually got to dip his toes into the Mediterranean Sea. (Almost literally because we went to a really shallow beach and he walked and walked but the water didn't get very high...my poor baby). I, on the other hand, am a bit of a wimp and just watched him from the shore because the water is still a bit too frosty for me. But, I had fun seeing him enjoy the sea and the waves... I think we will be going again soon.
Tomorrow we're taking the youth out to Pizza Hut with another group. I think John is thrilled to be going somewhere with pizza and somewhere with familiar menu and surroundings.
Ok this long blog should keep you going for a while. Please don't forget to comment because we love reading your thoughts.
Leia
A Quiet Saturday Night
Hello, all. Leia is at a school function this evening, and Michael and Soulla are off attending another wedding, so I'm just soaking up the silence of a big empty house for a few hours. Been reading a bit, playing my guitar, and generally enjoying some down time after a long day of cleaning the house and helping to tear some carpet out.
Last night was the third installment of our series of lessons on the Bible with our youth group. We discussed the fact that the story that the Bible tells regarding the nature and purpose of our existence (which we had explored the previous week) is only one amongst several competing stories (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, secular science, etc.), and challenged the kids to think about what separated the Christian story from these other stories. As you might imagine, that topic generated quite a bit of discussion among the group (tragically, since it was all in Greek I can't really re-cap much of it).
The point we tried to emphasize to them was that the Christian story centers on loving relationships between God and humanity (and also loving relationships between humans, which grow out of our relationships with God), while the other stories tend to say either A) There is no God, and therefore no one with whom to be in a relationship, B) There is some sort of God, but not the kind that you can be in relationship with, or C) There is a God, and you can be in a relationship with Him, but not a loving relationship. Anyway... in spite of my linguistic shortcomings that keep me from interacting in discussions with them as much as I would like, it is so rewarding to watch the young people grappling with new ideas and attempting to flesh out their faith. I think putting together this series of lessons has really given both Leia and me a fresh sense of enthusiasm regarding our calling and our ministry partnership. (And by the way, any of you guys from the youth group who may be reading this, please feel free to chime in with your thoughts about all of this stuff).
Tomorrow, as you well know, is Mother's Day (at least in the States), so we are going to Limassol tomorrow morning to attend a church service there (and give out more wedding invitations), after which we will take Leia's mom and grandma out for a nice lunch. Naturally, I am a bit sad about being far away from my own mom and grandmas this year(actually, this just occurred to me, but given the fact that I usually went home for the summers before Mother's Day when I was in college, I don't know WHEN I was last away from my mom on Mother's Day...hmmm), but on the plus side, it does mean another day down near the beach, as opposed to fighting for a table at Cracker Barrel or something (For all you British and Greek readers who may be wondering, "What in the world is Cracker Barrel?" well... words do not do it justice.)
We are beginning to count the days until our wedding, partially because we're eager to start our life together, and partially because we want to reassure ourselves that we won't have to deal with pre-wedding stress much longer, but also because we're so excited about seeing so many of you soon. Please drop us a brief comment now and then. Our mood improves considerably when we receive tangible proof that someone's actually reading all of these ramblings.
I'll leave you with another thought-provoking quote this evening. This is from a song called "Sounds Like Sunday" by a band called Mineral. Part of it comes from Luke 6:21. I put bits of it into one of the first cards I ever gave Leia, and into the last letter I wrote to my grandfather before he passed away, so it's pretty special to me. Enjoy.
Time doesn't always heal.
It just breathes, and swallows memories,
Sending showers,
Beating flowers into the mud.
How blessed we are for crying now,
For we will laugh some day, and how.
Nothing is forever in this place—
Nothing but the way my heart fits in Your hand,
The held breath of hope,
And the sweet, lingering taste of grace.
Amen to that.
–John
It's a Concert! It's a Rave! It's a ... Wedding??
Let's see... where were we? Oh, right... Sunday.
Sunday morning Leia and I attended a service at a place called New Life, which is an English-speaking congregation. We went there for the purpose of hand-delivering some invitations to our wedding (don't get me started), but the experience turned out to be pretty enjoyable. The people were very friendly and welcoming and it was nice to sing a couple of songs that I recognized and that consisted entirely of words that I know how to pronounce properly. The congregation seems like a pretty eclectic mix, everything from former Anglicans to full-fledged Pentecostals, with the only common denominators seeming to be the language and their commitment to each other as a community (which was very commendable and refreshing to see).
Sunday night we attended a Greek wedding reception that was completely surreal. The hall that it was held in had a huge stage, complete with a band that blended hard rock (their drummer was in a big drum cage) with more traditional Greek instruments like the bouzouki. There were giant projection screens filled with psychedelic images (sort of like glorified screen savers, really), colored lights flashing everywhere, smoke... you get the picture. All of this while several hundred people are having dinner and screaming at each other above the circus, trying to be heard. Then, the coup de grace: a section of the stage (which was quite high) sunk down out of view of the crowd, only to be slowly raised back up (amid appropriately dramatic music) bearing the bride and groom and the cake table, as the audience cheered thunderously. Seriously, what could be more tasteful and understated than that? Needless to say, Leia and I spent the evening being alternately amused and horrified. (Fear not, this is not typical of most weddings here, nor will our wedding be anything like that).
The last couple days have actually been fairly relaxing. Monday night we met up with some old friends of Leia's at Starbucks. It ended up being two other couples, each of whom had a young child, and us. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and at the end of the evening we got to make fun of them because they had to rush home and put their kids to bed, whilst we were free (theoretically) to party late into the night. In reality, we let them get out of sight and then left ourselves so that Leia could get to bed early enough to get up for school.. but that can just be our secret. Then last night the two of us went out for a nice dinner at a place called Cafe La Mode, and just crashed afterward. It's been cool getting a bit of a breather this week, and it's even going to continue today—we're leaving in a little while to go down to the beachfront at Larnaca and plan our next youth group lesson for Friday night (let the jealousy commence).
Not that we haven't been getting things done for the wedding. This week Leia had a trial with a hairdresser and found a general style that she likes, she took her dress to a seamstress to make some final alterations, we're taking the material for her maid of honor's dress to a dressmaker in Larnaca later today, and this morning we went and filled out all the necessary civil paperwork for our marriage. So things are slowly coming together. Hopefully our health and sanity will hold up a bit longer.
So there you have it. You're all caught up now. Sorry about the intermittent updates, but we're thrilled to hear that so many people are keeping up with our blog and enjoying it. We really want to hear from all of you, whether it's through the comment system or just via email. Let us know what's going on in your respective corners of the world, and see if you can submit a crazy wedding reception story that can top ours. We miss you all, and we're starting to get very excited about seeing so many of you next month. Thank you for your love and your prayers.
–John
Slackers!
O.K. so we started well but this week has been a bit thin on the posting front! We sincerely apologise for the delay in your daily dose of John and Leia.
It has been a hectic week and I wish I could report that next week will be better but so far, our days are fully booked all through until Thursday already! It's stressful and tiring just thinking about it. However, John and I have scheduled some time out too so hopefully we'll have time for this big long deep breath we desperately need to continue!
My birthday was lovely and I was thoroughly spoilt by my sweet man ...(all the girls may sigh dreamily along with me here, while the guys make fun of him..but only a bit!) I was taken shopping and this time I actually had permission and cash to buy 2 PAIRS OF SHOES!!!! In the evening, we went to a cool gothic-with-a-modern-twist-style restaurant which had the most amazing food...as you see, we're using this blog to try and tempt all our friends and family to come visit! Needless to say, it was a very special day mostly because of who I got to spend it with. ok...enough with the sappy moments...
Yesterday, we had our youth meeting and the second lesson of our series this month about the truth and relevance of the bible. It went really well and the kids are beginning to look at the bible in a completely different way. We were both very excited when we came home.
Today, we were supposed to see a car but it didn't quite work out. There's a saying in Greek 'Every obstruction is always for the best' and even though it's disappointing to not be getting a car as soon as we would like, I'm sure there is a better option just around the corner. We ended up going to Limassol instead to buy some material for the wedding and visiting my Grandmother. We all went out for lunch to this great little local Taverna and had real genuine Gyros....hmmmmmm! (tempting isn't it?)
Tonight we are going to just chill because tomorrow we have another fairly busy day. :(
Hopefully, we will find time to update and fill you in on our next eating adventures seeing as that's what we mostly do here in Cyprus!
Once again, thanks for all your emails, comments, wishes and texts on Thursday. I felt very loved and special. (Somebody write something warm and fuzzy for John too so he doesn't feel left out!)
Miss you all a bunch
Leia
X
Regularly Scheduled Programming
Sorry the news has been a little scarce around here lately. Wedding plans continue to devour most of our free time. So let's see... where were we?
Monday, May 1, was a national holiday here (as it apparently is most places, except the U.S. - what a ripoff), so we spent the day straightening some things up around the house. I finally got the last of my things unpacked and all my empty boxes stowed away in the attic, so that was a nice feeling. We spent the evening sorting through our invitation list trying to decide who's getting invited to the "family and friends" dinner and who's just getting invited to the ceremony, AND whose invitiations we can just mail as opposed to those that need to be hand-delivered (and if it sounds to you like the whole process is WAY more complicated than in the States, well... you're right).
On Tuesday morning I went to the American Embassy to complete some paperwork that is necessary for us to get a marriage license. Let me just say that airport security has nothing on these guys. I'm a U.S. citizen and I was a little intimidated, so I can't imagine what it's like for the poor people who go there to get a visa to visit America and have to try to convince the stone-faced inquisitors that they're not terrorist threats... very eerie kind of place. Fortunately though, I got what I needed with a minimum of hassle.
Yesterday evening Leia and I went to a planning meeting of local youth leaders who are aiming to put on a large interdenominational youth event here in Nicosia sometime this fall. Then we came home and started planning our own youth meeting for this Friday, in which we intend to help give our kids a holistic overview of the biblical story – yes, we dream big.
That brings us up to today, which is Leia's 28th Birthday! (quick, everyone send her an e-card now and maybe she won't realize that you forgot!) She's at school at the moment, but later today I'm taking her shopping and then we're having dinner at a fancy Italian place downtown, so we're both very excited about having a day off to just be together.
Since the last time we posted, a very close friend of ours lost his father. Two other friends became parents for the first time. It's very difficult to feel so far removed from the joys and sorrows of the people that are dearest to us, but we wanted to let ALL of you know that you are never far from our hearts, and that the things that touch your lives deeply touch ours too. It's amazing that this collection of silly little posts and comments and replies can make such a difference in our lives, but it does. It truly has become a source of grace for us, and we want to thank all of you for the part you have played in helping it to become so. See you soon.
–John
