8th July 1995, Shane and I became husband and wife and today 8th July 2024 we should have been entering into 29 years of marriage. Instead, I enter into my first year without him, since his death in October last year which is still so raw.
I wanted to thank our community of believers in the UK and all over the world, friends both past and present and my precious family for grieving with us and both grieving & celebrating my late husbands life and ministry these last 9 months.
I take such comfort from watching our marriage video in this shortened version I share with you today. It reminds me how young and youthful we once where. Our attraction & love to each other was so evident and the excitement to finally to become one and live our lives together serving Yahuah is evident for all to see.
I still chuckle fondly when I recall our marriage vows. Shane placing the wedding ring on my finger only or it not to slide up due to my nerves.
With the big void Shanes absence leaves in the lives of our children and I, hearing our declaration of love to each other before witnesses has a new depth of appreciation. Indeed, those wedding vows we exchanged to each other:
“I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage.
To live until death do us part.
With my body I honour you
All that I am I give to You
All that I have I share with you within the love of Father, Son & Ruach Ha Kodesh.” (Holy Spirit)
And after the spiritual pronouncement of our marriage:
“In the presence of Yahuah and this congregation, Shane and Jessica have given their covenant and made their marriage vows to each other. Declaring their marriage by the joining of hands & giving of rings, I know proclaim they are husband & wife.
What Yah has brought together let no man separate
You may kiss the Bride …..
That marriage union was the sealing of our life and service to Yah in ministry jointly together. Those of you who knew Shane well, knew him as a man of conviction and passion for the things of Yah. He was often referred to as a mighty warrior and if you listen carefully, you hear him say “holy war,” instead of holy law.
In his wedding speech he makes special recognition of the guests, just like he did in the months leading up to his passing, praying not for his own needs but those in our fellowship. As you would have heard, he shares how I broke up with him….. (No other reason, other than age difference but I missed him too much).
“Jesse left me for a while. I made a vow to Yahuah, I do not want to choose a girlfriend, I want you to choose her for me and she will have to be my wife. “
He was preaching at his own wedding. “Yah will kill that promise first,” But Yah (God) gave a word, “She coming back” where he got 27 confirmations including a shooting star when Shane asked for a sign and the rest is history.
I miss this precious man: a remarkable man, husband, father, leader & preacher. Now, I carry on and run the race with the baton we started together and cherish the family we made together in Rio, Storm, & Dallas and now my daughter in law Sam and our first granddaughter due at the end of this month.
Shane loved the boy and King David from the Bible. David “a man after Yah’s heart.” 1 Sam 13:14
Shane like David was a man who pursued after Yahuah’s heart.
