shocked, outraged and bitterly disappointed...

Stella Harville and her fiance', Ticha Chiuni, Nov 2010

Not long after Stella played the piano while Ticha sang 'I Surrender All'  a small church in Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from membership.

The statement said all people are welcome to attend the church, but that the congregation would not receive interracial couples as members, "nor will they be used in worship services" and other church functions, according to a copy supplied to the Herald-Leader by a church member.

 Seriously?!  This is 2011 for goodness sake.

 How is it possible for Christians to act this way?  

Stella's father had this to say about the decision of the church:

"It sure ain't Christian it ain't nothing but the old devil working"

Tom and I married on December 13, 1981.  

We faced this type of opposition back then.  Twenty nine years ago we went shopping at a mall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  A young blonde salesgirl asked Tom if she could help him with a pair of shoes.  After getting him settled she asked if she could help me as I wandered around looking for another pair for Tom to try on.  When I said "that's okay... we're together" she went into the stockroom and didn't come back out.   We were refused service at a restaurant in Missouri.  In Kansas, back in 1985, when our first child was stillborn someone asked our pastor if it was because we were being punished by God for being a biracial couple.  We moved to California in 1988 and left all of that behind.  There we found more couples like us and our children grew up feeling they were part of a normal typical family.

Spencer and Nathan

When our oldest, on the right, was asked at age 5 by a neighborhood kid why his mom was black he quickly answered "because God made her that way!"

I am shocked by this church's stance.  Outraged.  Bitterly disappointed.  Maybe these people have not read their Bibles.  Maybe they don't know that Moses was married to a Cushite (Ethiopian)?  Surely their Bibles include the book of Numbers.  Maybe they just haven't read chapter twelve?

My prayer is that Stella and Ticha can find a more loving congregation to be a part of.  I pray that they know that not all Christians think this way.  I pray that they will have a long and loving relationship and that this bigotry does not stand in the way of that.  And I pray that when they are counting down the days until their 30th anniversary this will be just a dim memory.

-------------------------

Update:  Pike church Reverses Ban

Counting the days until our 30th...

"Coming together is a beginning,

 staying together is progress, 

and working together is success."

 ~Henry Ford

As our 30th wedding anniversary draws closer we are looking at different ways to commemorate the day.  I even started a board on Pinterest to keep track of some of the craft ideas and places to go that I have found.

We have already booked our hotel:

Maya Beach Hotel

And here is my favorite craft idea:

Love Map Source

  You can find the tutorial for how to make this map here. 

We are thinking of incorporating Wichita,Kansas, Costa Mesa, California, Krasnodar, Russia and Belmopan, Belize into our love map.  I have been looking for different maps online and my favorite for Wichita (which is where we met, married and had our first child) is this one:

Every love story is beautiful...but ours is my favorite!


So, tell me, where have you gone?

 And what special craft projects have you done to celebrate a special occasion?