T41 - Get me to the church on time

Well today was a mamoth day that, after the business of yesterday required my full taying-awake capacities at all times! The day began with church in Taipei. The service was good, despite my continued groaning and longing for a good old Wesley hymn in English, or a Spirit-led worship song. The sermon was on Ephesians 2 and Hsinte spoke with passion even if I didn’t understand what he was saying. Afterwards was choir practice and lunch. Despite my misgivings over the amount of time spent rehearsing for worship, there is a great atmosphere here on a Sunday, with no-one seemingly in a rush to get off at the end. The people here are so welcoming that there was a little discussion as to who got to sit next to me today! After choir there was a short men’s choir practice because the piece I do a solo in is going to be used next week in worship. A quickly gobbled lunch (well as quickly as you gobble using chopsticks to eat a chicken leg!) followed by a quick trip to flat to get my case saw us into the car for the journey to Taichung. It seemed a little bizzare if not fully understandable that we listened to arrangements of Christmas Carols for the two hour journey. Hsinte’s wife is the musical director in the church and she is trying to prepare the choir pieces for over Christmas and was trying to get inspiration. I have to keep reminding myself that it actually nearly November, its just bizarre listening to Carols when the temperature is up at 28 and your bathed in glorious sunshine!

Anyway feeling all festive we arrived at the church in Taichung for 3.30 wedding. Hsinte and Margaret had been involved in this church for some time before Hsinte took up the role of minister in Taipei, and Margaret had conducted the choir here for 8 years. Everything seemed quite like a British wedding during the service, except there is parade at the start of parents and groom and then finally the bride to rousing rendition of ‘Here comes t’Bride’ from the Grand Bechstein in the corner. The service proceeded with three different choirs giving pieces of music - one accompanied by a little toy trumpet playing jazz which was pretty good. The bride and groom stood for the whole service, except for when the bride fainted, which made cause for the preaching to stop for 10 minutes while she came round. Thankfully they found a seat for her. After the sermon there were some quickly mumbled promises (later I found out that all legal requirements are done prior to the service in the chruch at a registry office). Married people here don’t wear rings so there was none of that, but there was the exchange of candles. When the parents walked in at the start they both presented candles to the minister who put them in a display, they were then used to light one candle by the bride and groom. Pretty and symbolic. After another choir sung it was time for the exit to Midsummer Night’s Dream. The photos were all taken in the church before everyone piled in cars to go to the restaurant.

The restaurant was very grand and they were catering for at least 5 weddings at the same time, with each having 200+ guests. We found the right wedding for the right couple and hopefully the right seat. There was then great fireworks and the waiters did a little dance before the bride and groom walked in. This was followed by more theatrics and fireworks when the head chef presented the first dish to the top table. We had a stunning 12 course banquet. All the time we were eating there was something going on at the front. Speeches, music, theatrics. Every so often the bride would disappear and come back wearing a different dress and having had her hair done, I think three times in all. At the end of the banquet the bride and groom greet everyone on the way out, and they are the last to leave. So after a handshake, a ‘Congratulations’ and ‘You look great’ we headed into the car and drove down to Tek-Tung for sleep. Anyone who has a vague inclining to ever being romantic should avoid going to weddings when your other half is on the other side of the world, it doesn’t make for an easy night’s sleep regardless of how tired you are! But I pray for the lovely couple and hope that God blesses them in all they do together.

Some nice musicians…

The menu - yes that’s right, each line is a course!

The lovely couple - this is the third, and least ellaborate dress of the day!

This entry was posted on 27/10/2009 at 06:20 am and is filed under Paul's diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.