Wedding Bells

Last Saturday, July 4th, I was invited to attend one of our day worker's weddings. I had gotten an invitation a few months earlier and was very excited that I would be able to attend. Edithe is one of our housekeeping day workers. I wish I could describe her to you in a way that would fully give you a glimpse of how awesome and joyful she is in everything she does. During a dress ceremony for the VVF ladies in the morning Edithe was in cleaning one of the bathrooms on the ward the ceremony was on. We were singing, dancing, and singing praise songs when I looked over into the bathroom and Edithe was in her own little world...she was singing at the top of her lungs, jumping around with the biggest smile on her face all while scrubbing the bathroom walls. I will never forget that picture in my mind. She always has a smile and an encouraging word to say. If there is a dancing during the ward service we always find each other to jump around and dance...she was one of my first African dance instuctors;) Needless to say it was a priviledge to be able to be a part of her wedding day.

A group of about 12 of us from the ship piled into cars Sat. morning and headed to their church. We parked the car and zigzagged back and forth between little shacks until we could hear the music. It was a small little church with LOTS of people inside singing. We were ushered to our seats and I nestled in preparing for the next several hours. The invitation said 10-2pm, but as is with most things African you can be almost guaranteed that it will be longer. They had a bulletin and each thing listed had a time next to it...5min, 10 min, etc. This was amusing to me as about an hour into it, we were only on bullet point number 4 which up to that point was like 20 minutes according to the bulletin. We sang and danced and finally there was loud cheering as the groom made his was into the building. Then another 20 minutes or so of dancing and singing and dance performances by the kids (all dressed alike) and the bride came. There was all kinds of hootin and hollerin and rice was thrown on her as she walked up the isle. Edithe looked very somber which was very odd to me as I knew she was excited about getting married. I still havent figured that out except that maybe that is tradition.

After about 2 hours they finally started the vows...which took about 30 minutes. One of our translators who helped lead the worship for the day helped translate some of it into english, but it was still rather confusing. The sermon (well, first one anyway) did last only about 30 minutes...I was very impressed. The title was 'Marriage is Good', which they emphasized over and over. Most of the sermon consisted of how wives should submit to there husbands. They did not go on to continue the rest of the verse...just stopped there. This I found quite interesting, yet not a bit suprising for this culture.
At this point, it is nearing 1pm and most of us have to leave to get to something else planned that day. Well, at 1245 one of the pastors announces, 'and now time for Mercy Ships to present their special song'. We all looked at each other..'is he serious?', 'uh', 'what could we sing', 'uh','this is akward', 'uh'...this went on for a couple minutes until their song finished. Some members of the congregation started coming towards us and helping us up to the front. This caught us off guard, yet it is common knowledge when you go to any church event in Africa you should not be suprised if you are called upon to sing or preach a sermon on the spot. I guess they enjoy the element of suprise here. As we made our way to the front I still don't think we knew what we were going to sing. I felt kind of silly, yet at the same time was like, 'whelp', at least Im not gonig down alone.:) Thankfully one of our translators who was helping lead worship helped lead us in one of the songs that we often sing on the ward. It ended up going quite smoothly. It sure made for an interesting end to the festivities for us as we had to leave early.

I would have enjoyed staying longer and for refreshments after but our ride was leaving...and who knows how long the wedding actually lasted. Edithe is off work for a few weeks, but I look forward to catching up with her and hearing more about it when she gets back.