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Published: September 4th 2010
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The Happy Couple
The married couple sitting at the front of the church. Hi everyone,
As I had said in my last blog I was about to leave to get an overnight train for a friend’s wedding. Well it certainly was a very enjoyable and very different experience. Thanks to the help of a sleeping tablet I got a good night’s sleep on the train so I was well rested for the wedding the next morning. As we(5 of us in total) arrived into the village where the wedding was taking place the bride and groom were just starting to walk through the village together towards the church. They were led by a marching band any about 300 - 400 people which included friends, family and the people from that village. The ceremony was very relaxed and quite similar to what we would have at home. Of course I couldn’t understand what was being said but I detected when they exchanged their vows as very suddenly there was an almighty ‘blatter’ of drums from some members of the band who had, unknown to me, taken up position just behind where I was sitting, but it was ok, my heart eventually started beating again and I managed to land back into the same seat
The Church
This is the village church where the wedding took place. I jumped out of.
After the wedding ceremony everyone casually walked back to the brides house where the happy couple took up position on a throne type seat and friends approached them to hand over wedding presents and give a short speech if they wanted. While this was going on half of the guests were sitting round the corner at the reception meal. It was so casual and laid back that you could just walk from the brides house to the reception meal and back whenever it suited you. As you can see from the picture the reception looks quite different from what we are used to, everyone’s plate was a large leaf from a banana tree…why didn’t myself and Bronagh think of that when we were getting married last April. There is no set number of people invited to weddings over here, usually hundreds turn up and very often over a thousand can come and join in the celebration. It creates a good atmosphere and it was a great experience.
After we left the reception we took a mini bus and went sightseeing travelling around that area before getting the train back home again that evening. It
was a beautiful part of India, its actually a small island with a population of about 100,000 people. It is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The beaches and scenery were really beautiful.
On a completely different note…just two weeks ago one of the church members here was struggling with his family situation. He is a young man in his early 20’s who is the only one earning a wage in his family of 5 other brothers and sisters. He got word that his father (who was a witch Dr.) was found starving to death in a house close to a temple where he often went to worship for maybe 3 weeks at a time. He was brought to hospital but died 3 days later. No one in the family knew until they heard about his death. To make matters worse, one of the man’s daughters is studying nursing and was working in the hospital that her father died in and she was unaware that he was even there. Some of her class mates had also treated her father before he died not knowing who he was. As you can imagine the family are all devastated and now
the pressure is on this young man (as he is now seen as the head of the house) to provide for the family. I, along with a few pastors from the church, went to his house just a couple of days ago for a prayer meeting. Their entire house was a 12ft x 12ft room with a corrugated asbestos roof, one light and one fan. Altogether there were 21 of us squeezed into the room with another 6 people sitting outside at the door way.
One of the pastors sang, another gave a word of encouragement to the family relating how he had gone through the same experience of losing his father a number of years ago and I also had the pleasure of praying for them, I counted it an honour to be there and share in their grief to some small degree.
Its times like this when you realise that life is about people, and Gods will for your life is about people. One of the students from the bible college has asked me to speak in his church tomorrow night so I’m currently sitting trying to put a sermon together based on the fact that we
Sightseeing
Just off the coast of India. will all stand before God in judgment after we die. God sent myself and Bronagh to India all because of people, to help impart something to them and for us to grow through our interaction with them as well. Its not about spending time away from home, its not about giving up a job, its not about visiting another country or city, its about the very thing that God is passionate about……People!!!
I just feel very humbled that we were chosen to come here and as my time is drawing to a close in this country and probably this chapter in my life I know there are so many people around the world that are not fulfilling their destiny in the purpose that God has for them. I feel called to try and change that.
This is probably my penultimate blog entry. Can I just say to everyone who commented on the last blog, thank you so so much, it was great to hear from every one of you, it is very encouraging, I really appreciate it. Can I also ask you to keep me and the students in your prayers as we go into the last week
of the course. I am also starting to get into the frame of mind for heading back home again, please pray for a job for me also. I’m not burdened by not having a job to go home to as I know it was god’s will for me to come here so its up to him to get me a job when I go home but I need to pray his promises into being.
God Bless you for reading and keeping in touch.
Stephen
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Brian White
non-member comment
Good Work
Sounds like you've had an amazing summer. Bronagh spoke in church last week about your work out there, amazing stuff... Hopefully with the seeds you have sown that the word of God will spread through the region and the country as a whole. Enjoy the rest of your stay and I'll pray for your safe journey and job situation for when you get home.