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Downtown Houston Church Gives of Itself To Host Wedding of Formerly Homeless Couple

Video: KTRK 13 News

Minh Dam, Houston Chronicle
Wanda Ware calmed her nerves Sunday morning with Starbucks coffee and a cinnamon roll. The 57-year-old bride-to-be then met her hairdresser and makeup artist, who adorned her hair with a peach-colored rose and painted her lips a deep red. She didn’t wear the typical white wedding gown. Instead, Ware chose a simple black dress decorated with glitter and a small white jacket for the first wedding held at the downtown campus of First Baptist Church. While Houston’s First Baptist church is actually 172 years old, its downtown campus began offering church services and Bible study classes in October 2011.

Not only was Ware lucky enough to have everything in her wedding donated to her by members of her church, but she also met her future husband when she was down on her luck.

Ware was leaving an abusive marriage and homeless when she met the now-44-year-old Bryan Prejean seven years ago at a care center for the homeless in southeast Houston.

“One of his friends told me, ‘He really likes you and thinks you’re a nice lady,’ ” Ware said. ” ‘He likes you because you have compassion for the people.’ ” After ending her previous relationship, she began dating Prejean, who now works as a carpenter for construction and remodeling projects. It was around this time that another homeless man told Ware about First Baptist’s downtown campus.

The free breakfast was what originally attracted her to the Sunday morning services. But she kept going back because she liked what the church had to say about love, God and second chances.
(Read the rest of this story at Chron.com) 

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