Steve Tamayo: 0:02
So many of us are feeling like life has been placed on pause during this disruption. Plans have been cancelled, delayed, or at the very least, changed. And yet in the midst of all of this life is still happening. And God is still at work. Today we've got a story about just that.
Steve Tamayo: 0:36
Joining me on the podcast today are a pair of InterVarsity staff, Frank and Daniella. Thanks so much for hopping in.
Daniela Lancara: 0:44
Super excited to be here.
Frank Espinoza: 0:46
Yeah, thanks for inviting us Steve.
Steve Tamayo: 0:48
So anything exciting happen with you guys recently?
Frank Espinoza: 0:52
Well, this one little thing. We got married on Easter Sunday.
Steve Tamayo: 0:57
You did? Oh, wow. Easter Sunday? That is a very interesting day to get married. Is that the day that you had planned to get married on?
Daniela Lancara: 1:08
Um, no. Originally, we were scheduled to get married in June, but because of COVID, we sensed the Lord's invitation to move our date up.
Steve Tamayo: 1:18
Okay. So talk to me about what the original plan was. Daniella you're on staff with InterVarsity in Oklahoma. Frank, you're on staff with InterVarsity in Texas. You also worked at a church in Texas. So you had a plan. What was the original plan?
Daniela Lancara: 1:34
Yes, We were gonna get married in San Antonio in June. And we already had a venue. We put deposit money into it, as well, and we were going to gather family and friends. I had my bridesmaids lined up, um, bridesmaids from all over the world. My money was gonna come from Panama, from Costa Rica, from Venezuela as well. And we were looking forward to gathering everybody together. And, of course, Frank's family is all in San Antonio, they've been in there for a few generations.
Frank Espinoza: 2:07
I mean, we even had a honeymoon booked and everything, and we felt like the summer would be a perfect time for us to transition well. We would move her things out of Norman, Oklahoma and have time to just settle in, and, you know, at a more of a kind of quieter and relaxed time rather than the school year. But, you know, didn't happen that way.
Steve Tamayo: 2:27
Well it didn't happen that way. And you, you all faced a decision point. You could have decided with everything going on your just gonna move the wedding date back, you get married in December. And lots of us in the midst of this disruption have decided to defer plans. And sometimes that's a really wise thing to do. And yet there are times where we need to just move forward with a different version of what we were thinking we would do. How did you decide to move forward on Easter Sunday?
Frank Espinoza: 2:59
I think at first when we when we thought about potentially pushing our date back, it just sounded really hard. We just both knew like hearts, minds, our jobs, everything was kind of already pointing towards the summer. That's when we'll make it happen. So it just seemed really hard.
Steve Tamayo: 3:18
We're gonna talk in a minute about what you decided to do and what your wedding looked like. But I wonder, as you made that decision, how did you decide what was essential and what was optional around your wedding?
Daniela Lancara: 3:35
Um, it was a journey for us to be obedient to what the Lord was inviting us into. I think the cost was high. Whatever we did, either waiting until it was safe to gather seemed like a really high cost, and also just stepping into marry sooner than later also seem like a high cost. And what I mean by that is that, if we were getting married soon, which we did, that would have meant that my family from all over the world would not be able to be there. And if you were to wait until later when my family could gather, then in person, then that would have meant not being with with Frank, the man that I love. And God was just inviting us to hold the beauty in one hand and rejoice and the joy of being united with Frank sooner rather than later. And also hold a lament in the other hand, how the grief, how hard it would be doing either of those things. So that's why we moved forward with getting married on Easter Sunday.
Frank Espinoza: 4:36
But she told me that a week before Easter Sunday, the Saturday before. And at first I thought she was joking. And I'm like, "Are, oh you being serious!" And I express this to Daniela, yet on, like I'm ready to marry you already, so why not? Let's do it in a week now.
Steve Tamayo: 4:53
I do want to just register, that Frank, one thing that you did to yourself is you gave yourself an anniversary that moves around. Right? Like Easter, Easter is not always gonna be on April 12 every year. So you have your anniversary and now you have Easter. So have these, like, two dates that you just have to celebrate. That's a high bar. You up for that?
Frank Espinoza: 5:15
I know, I'm gonna need the Lord's help and ask him every every year to help me to remember.
Steve Tamayo: 5:23
If you do forget the anniversary, you can always say "I was just waiting to celebrate it on Easter."
Frank Espinoza: 5:27
Yeah, it's good. Thanks Steve.
Steve Tamayo: 5:30
Well, so what is your wedding end up looking like?
Frank Espinoza: 5:34
Yeah, that itself was a journey too. We initially planned, like, a backyard wedding and realized we couldn't do it in the venues. They're all shut down. Didn't have places gathering. So we were kind of back and forth. And in a few different Airbnbs that we saw in San Antonio and doing it in a nice backyard.
Daniela Lancara: 5:52
I didn't even have a dress. Um, I was just playing around with the idea of wearing my prom dress, which was just happened to be white. Definitely did not want to do that. We didn't have her rings. Yeah, there were delayed because of COVID, but everything got in. The the Lord just showed up really miraculously. We got our rings in. Frank messaged the company that we got them from and they expedited, Shipped for us. all three for free.
Frank Espinoza: 6:15
For free.
Daniela Lancara: 6:16
Then my dress, my mom and my aunt, my fia Gabi were just on top of it. I told him we have 24 hours to find a dress. They found a dress. I said, "Yeah, sure. Maybe." And then my bridesmaids love and I said, "Okay, let's get it. It's perfect." So then they got it online, expidited ship as well, and everything got in and we found the perfect venue and we said, "Well, OK, we'll go check it out. But we need WiFi. We need those things so that we can tune in our whole families into it." And we were not hopeful because they didn't have WiFi. Um, and they said that we can use their neighbors. There's a lot of details that were not, um, certain about that these would work out. So all that to say, like the Lord didn't have to give us all these things, but he just blessed us with it. And we were just in all and mesmerized by the gifts that he's given us some in this season.
Steve Tamayo: 7:09
That perspective of, "Hey, this is what the Lord is giving me, and that's what the Lord is doing. And this is how the Lord is coming through." I think there's something really remarkable about that. I wonder, Frank, Daniella, if a student is listening to this and is experiencing some of this disruption around their plans, like they were going to go to a specific college in the fall and they're not sure that's gonna happen now. Or maybe they're a faculty person and they had a plan for what their next career step was gonna look like, and that looks like it's up in the air. You have a word, maybe something you've learned through this that you would share to encourage them?
Frank Espinoza: 7:47
Yeah, a couple of things come to mind. I think at first it was really hard for me to express kind of the sadness or grief that came with getting the wedding that we wanted. I think initially my thoughts were people are experiencing way worse things right now, like a wedding venue, you know, is not that significant in the grand scheme of people losing their lives, and how they were infected by this. So I think that kept me from mourning and really entering those feelings. But then I pressed into that a little bit more and felt the Lord's invitation to say no, it's okay to grieve this stuff. It's okay to mourn the losses, even if they look different from the people around you or that you're witnessing. And I also think, right, like, this is not what we anticipated and the way that we wanted our wedding kind of looked different, and we're just waiting for our plans or our dreams, to come to fruition. But that's not what was happening. It changed. And so at our our wedding, we had Revelation 19 read. So we talked about the marriage supper of the lamb, and so it just made me think about that reality to like acknowledging- Hey, things aren't as they should be right now, but there's a day coming where it will be. And I was thinking of that in light of eternity and feeling the freedom to say, like "yeah, are our hope is not in the things around us right now, but it's on what is to come." So I think that's something we've been processing.
Steve Tamayo: 9:14
So this is the only wedding that you're planning to have. And yet, you know, there's another wedding coming.
Frank Espinoza: 9:22
Yeah, yeah.
Steve Tamayo: 9:24
Daniella, any insight share to close this out?
Daniela Lancara: 9:28
Well, I agree with everything Frank said. I think one more practical thing that helped me in this process. I was just feeling the assurance of where God is inviting us into and holding onto that every day of that week. So beginning that week, it was a really clear "Yes, God wants me, wants us to move forward." And then as emotions and things happen throughout the week, I it was easy for me to forget that it was easy for me to just go up and down of the wave of the feelings. Just thankful for that clear moment that I had with the Lord and then Frank's assurance, godly assurance throughout it all, too. So just a practical advice to know what the Lord is inviting you into. And don't be afraid to move forward with it.
Steve Tamayo: 10:18
James Choung shares that one of the most essential things that a follower of Jesus can have is the skill to recognize God's voice and obey him. If you listen to this, I just want to encourage you cultivate that skill and hearing God and the discipline to follow him as he leads you. He's guiding you through Scripture, through your community, through prayer. He's speaking to you even now, if you'll listen to him and that that could make all of the difference during a disruption like this. Especially when you're plans are thrown into disarray to know that you're not having to make the adjustments all by yourself. Daniella. Frank. Thanks so much for being willing to do this. Would you be OK if I prayed for you before we closed the interview?
Daniela Lancara: 11:07
Please do.
Steve Tamayo: 11:09
Ah, Jesus. Thank you so much for Daniella and for Frank, for the gift you've given them of this relationship and the ways that you've been guiding them during this disruption, we ask that you would bless their marriage. That their life together would be full of joy. That their life together would be a witness to those around them. We pray this in your name. Jesus. Amen.
Frank Espinoza: 11:36
Amen.
Steve Tamayo: 11:37
Thank you so much for being willing to do this.
Daniela Lancara: 11:40
Thank you.
Frank Espinoza: 11:42
Thank you Steve.
Daniela Lancara: 11:42
Bye.