A Messianic Jewish Wedding (with our live intro explanation video)

We had a wedding!!!
(A private wedding with so little time to prepare.)

Alex and Rachel.
(Sasha is Alex's home country nick name. We, his parents, came to know him with that name. Later when he wanted to be called Alex, he told us he is fine for his close relatives to keep on calling him Sasha, but to introduce him to new people as Alex.)

First is our introduction live video (edited a bit) that we made the night after the wedding to let our congregation know about the surprise. (Pastor Glenn was tired. It was late at the end of an exciting but long day. His wife's incomplete sentences are due to the late hour also. Sorry about that. *smile* She was texting people to invite them to the live video so they wouldn't miss it.) (It ended up taking a whole day to edit the video and then all night for it to upload. Whew!)

The wedding starts at minute: 5:48 (Sorry, the camera was turned several times. We tried to edit out all the turning, but wasn't possible to get it all. *smile*)

The beginning of the wedding didn't get recorded. The bride walked down the open stairway to some piano playing, circled the groom seven times and the seven blessings were spoken over them. The couple then drank from the wine goblet and lit the (make-shift) menorah candles together. But they had forgotten to set up the phone for the video, so we missed all of that in this video. Sorry. The mother of the groom suddenly realized there was no video happening, so she interrupted the wedding to get the groom's phone to begin the recording.

The cake had delicious blueberry filling per the bride's request. Yum!

Enjoy. Be blessed. We thank Adonai for bringing these two wonderful young people together. Praise His Name. We pray for His blessing upon their new life together.

P.S. If you want to give a gift to the newly weds, Alex and Rachel Zehr, email matsuvalleymessianic@gmail.com for their mailing address or do FB messenger to https://www.facebook.com/MatsuValleyMessianicCongregation or to https://www.facebook.com/cheryl.zehr.3/

We can also send you a link to send a gift through Paypal. We thank Alex's (nickname Sasha) aunts and uncles for their generous gifts that they gave even though they weren't invited. How kind and thoughtful of them.

Just a little explanation for those who don't know this couple.
They met two years ago in Alaska at our congregation. But sadly in early 2020 Alex had to come to Indiana with his parents to help take care of his grandpa who had a severe stroke. Alex's technical school in Alaska had gone online due to covid. While in Indiana, he found a technical school that was open and transferred there and also finally recently got an apprentice job there. Thus, he could not return to Alaska. He and Rachel stayed connected through phone calls and video chats, but they missed each other so much. It was getting close to a year of being apart. Finally they could stand it no longer. (So, no, they are not expecting. It's kind of not possible to get that way over the phone. *smile*)

Alex could only get two days off work since it is a new job. We only arrived two days before, Rachel only a couple days before that. Adonai wonderfully provided her wedding dress through cousin of Alex's that fit perfectly! Amazingly, the flower shop (Wooden Wagon) next door allowed us to go into the cooler and pick out what we wanted. They had some nice white bows already prepared and quickly did up some blue ones, and charged so little! God bless them. Pastor Glenn and Alex built the chuppah that morning. The Tallit is Pastor Glenn's that he bought in Israel. Alex's grandma is a seamstress, so she happened to have fabric that could be used to hurriedly drape the chuppah. She also tied the bows on the Bride's bouquet.

Rachel has four younger siblings. The cost of flying their whole family from Alaska was too great for them to come, but praise Adonai they could be with us virtually! It was so touching to have her 8-year-old brother, Isaac, say the Hebrew blessing over them and for her father to pray for them. Our hearts were overflowing!

The couple was not able to take a honeymoon yet. We all stayed somewhere else that night so they could have the house to themselves. (That is where they are staying for the time being. We pray and trust Adonai will keep on providing for them.)

Видео A Messianic Jewish Wedding (with our live intro explanation video) канала Matsu Valley Messianic Jewish Ministry