The following is from the printed program used on the actual day.

The

Wedding Celebration

of

Sarah Rinsema

and

Dan Sybenga

Calvin College Chapel

June 13, 1998

"Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:7-8a

The Wedding Ceremony

String Prelude

Processional - Fireworks, Handel

Welcome and Declaration of Purpose

Prayer of Invocation

Song of Gladness - #432 For the Beauty of the Earth

Parental Promise of Support

Sarah and Dan: Each one of you has encouraged and strengthened us over the years. We have always depended upon this love and support. Will you continue to love us in this way as we begin our life together?

Family: As your families, we promised to support and pray for you, and we bless you in your life together.

Marriage as Created & Ordained by God

Dave: From the beginning God, the triune God, is love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit share a love abundant, overflowing, and intimate. It is most natural for a God of such love to extend this love. And so God did. God created Adam in his own image. And in this creation the immense love of God was shown and shared.

Stacie: In being made in God's image Adam also loved. God knew that Adam needed one of his own kind to share this love. So God made Eve as a partner, a sharer in the love and life God had given. Whith these words from Genesis God creates marriage. "A man will leave his father and mother and will be. . . united to his wife and they will become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24)

Deb: So from the beginning marriage is defined as two becoming one. What does this mean? The two individuals in a marriage relationship share one life. This life is defined by Christ's selfless love - a love characterized by compassion,kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness (Colossians 3:12-14). This is the love God intends for marriage.

Adrian: God promises that when we live in this love marriage will provide a context within which husband and wife can help, comfort, complement, and find companionship in each other, a proper setting within which we may give full, loving expression to the desires God gave us, and a secure environment of faith where children may be born and taught to know and serve God.

Peggy: This beautiful love which the Father speaks, the Son lives and the Holy Spirit inspires, leads us into a life of deep joy and freedom and reveals fo us an image of the perfect love of the Triune God.

Song of Reflection - #586 In Our Household, Heavenly Father

Love, as Defined in God's Word

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self - seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are propheciew they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where ther is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we rophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was child, I taled like a child, I thought like a childe, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put my childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see fact to face. now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

Meditation - given by Sid and Adriana Sybenga

Promises to Each Other

Expression of Promises

Foot Washing

Servant Song

Exchange of Rings: Engraved on this ring are two symbols: an infinity sign and two joined crosses. Together these symbols represend out covenant love in Christ.

Declaration of Marriage

Seal of Embrace

Prayer of Blessing-O Perfect Love sung by Mel Holwerda

Benediction

Recessional - Ode to Joy Beethoven, words by Van Dyke

String Postlude