Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

As most of you know,
this month we are in the country of Malaysia. And in this country, the three
most prominent races are Indians, Malays, and Chinese. You’ll find all of these
kinds of restaurants and stores and temples all throughout the country. And with
these races come the different religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim, and
Christianity as well. Being here for three weeks now, we’ve only been meeting
and hanging out with Indians and Malays. We’ve attended several small groups,
meeting and hanging out with certain people only once, but once is all it takes
to impact people if you use the opportunity. Recently, we were given the
opportunity of a lifetime. Our contact George asked us if we wanted to attend
his sister-in-laws wedding. A real, authentic Indian wedding. We told him if it
wasn’t going to be too much trouble that we would love to attend. So it was all
set up that we would be going.

Now, initially, we all
just thought we’d attend as guests, trying to go unnoticed. Everywhere we go,
we’re made the center of attention because we’re Americans. We didn’t want that
to be the case here because we didn’t want to take away from the bride and
groom. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined what was going to
happen…

As a missionary who
carries everything I own in a backpack, you don’t have much. And so thinking
about what to wear to a formal, Indian wedding wasn’t the most exciting thing.
I figured I’d wear the nicest clothes we had, which was probably a skirt and
nice top, or a flowy dress. But George’s family had other ideas. The day we
were leaving, he came and told us that we would be borrowing “sari’s” from his
family. “Sari’s” are traditional Indian formalwear. They’re made from beautiful
fabrics of all different colors. They get tucked and tied around your body and
then hang over your shoulder and show your stomach a bit. They call it “the
sexiest clothing” that Indians wear because of the small amount of skin shown.
So we got to their house and they fed us breakfast and lunch. Then the fun
began. The women of the family were showing us sari after sari to pick to wear
to the wedding. Most of them were very small. But we eventually found one for
each of us that turned out to be perfect for all of us. In no time at all, we
were being dressed and wrapped and tucked. I felt like a princess being dressed
in my gown. After all of us were dressed with our hair and makeup done, we had
a photo shoot. Everyone looked incredible. It was like something out of a dream
or fairytale. We all looked like a mix between Roman goddesses and Indian
princesses. So much for going unnoticed. Not only were we white Americans in
Indian garb, but we were told that we would be singing a special song at the
wedding. They said it would be an honor for the bride and groom to have us
sing. I’ve always wanted to sing at someone’s wedding. Never in my life did I
think that it would be at an Indian wedding singing to people I had just met.
But it truly was an honor. For us. We met the bride and groom and immediately
loved them and vice versa. In the course of one day, we were invited into this
family’s special day. And in the course of a day, we were accepted as part of
them.

The ceremony was
beautiful. Weddings are taken way more serious and are a much bigger deal here
than in America. When they came in, it was like watching a king and queen enter
into the room. And that’s the way it should be. Later at the reception, we were
served and many people came up to us to thank us for coming, to tell us how
“sexy” we looked in our sari’s, and to welcome us. I was humbled again. Every time
these sort of things happen, I always think to myself, “Who do these people
think I am? I’m nobody.” But they treat us better than anyone in the world.
After we were finished eating, we got to go up and take pictures with the bride
and groom. They were so happy to have us. They asked us to be in their family
portrait of the wedding party. We are forever going to be in their history.
Before leaving, the groom told us that he’d see us again, either in this life
or on the other side of glory. Thanks dude, as if I haven’t cried enough today.
But we all hugged and said goodbye and then we prayed for them.