Today we went to the wedding of a young man from our church. As the building that we will be meeting in is way too small, they had rented a larger open type church building. The service promptly began at 10:00 and was a long, hot, rather joyless, rigid affair. (I felt very sorry for all the ladies dressed in their traditional Indonesian clothing which is pretty much like wearing plastic… and the groom who was wearing a full suit and gloves...) We sang accompanied by a keyboard set to the pipe organ setting and way too loud for the amount of people there. Our pastor preached in his usual long-winded repetitious manner and two hours later the, hopefully, happy couple was married. They promptly left the building, for reasons unknown, and the rest of us went to the back and signed the guest book, inserted our envelopes with money into the box provided and got our complimentary fans and little boxes containing a sliver of cake, cup of water, some kind of chips made from a nut (kind of bitter tasting) and two candies and went and sat down again all while the wedding singer belted out some romantic tune. The reception was supposed to start at 12:30, in the same building, but we really didn’t know how it was all going to go. So I asked around and found out that they were waiting for the bridal couple to return and then they would go sit on those fancy chairs on the stage and then some people would speak and then, after about an hour, everyone would eat. That sounded a bit much for the kids who already did great sitting there in the heat for 2 hours, so we headed home. I couldn’t help but wonder why everything had to feel like a ritual instead of a joyful opportunity to celebrate one of God’s great gifts to us – the institution of marriage. Well, next week Saturday, Bible study is scheduled to be at the newlywed’s house. Then we’ll actually be able to meet the new bride and see what she really looks like. They all wear so much make-up and fake eyelashes etc… at these affairs that they all look the same and so different than they do in “real life”.