The Wedding in Cana: Jesus turns water into wine

I went to Israel in 2015 and went to a place called Cana. The bible mentioned that Jesus had attended a wedding in Cana and performed the miracle of turning water into wine there. So I bought a “Cana Wedding Wine” in Cana. However, Chris doesn’t drink any wine! He had no idea about how to select the wine for the wedding. Therefore, he needed help from Auguste, his uncle in law!

Some of you may be wondering, what is this wedding in Cana? Here is what the Bible says:

Jesus Changes Water Into Wine (John 2:1-12)

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

Weddings were very special occasions. In the days of Jesus, the people went to a party after the ceremony. This party continued for a week. The guests ate and drank together. Everyone was very happy. But if there was not enough food or drink for the week, the bride and the bridegroom felt great shame. You see, at a wedding such as this, hospitality is everything. It was their duty to provide plenty. This wedding feast took place at Cana in Galilee. There are all sorts of speculation regarding whose wedding it is. Nevertheless, it seems like Mary had some responsibility for the wedding, because she became concerned when they run out of wine. Perhaps someone she loves is going to be embarrassed.

This passage is not just about Jesus filling in for a poorly catered wedding. This was a sign. Signs are about pointing a direction forward. Just like we need to look at the signs to know where we are going. We’re told that this was a sign. There are five wine signs that point to the deeper and higher meaning of this great miracle.

1) “My hour”

Sign one was Jesus’ discussion with his mother. When Mary asked Jesus to do something, he literally says “dear woman, what is this to me, and what is this to you? My hour has not yet come.” “Woman” does not mean anything harsh in the original language. It is a term meaning ‘lady’ or ‘madam.’ ‘What have you and I in common? What is there between us two? My ways are not your ways. I know when it is fit to work a miracle, and when it is fit to withhold, but you do not.’ Here is the rebuke. Jesus does not see that he has anything to do with the situation. Jesus was thinking about other things. Jesus knew that he had come to the earth for a special purpose. He never forgot this. Mary is embarrassed because there isn’t enough wine for the wedding. But Jesus is saying that “I have a different purpose to you. I have a higher purpose, and that hour, that time, has not yet come.” So when is the time, when is the hour?

What is fascinating here is, Mary understands that Jesus’ response is not a no, because she immediately tells the servants to “do whatever he tells you.” It seems that Mary also has authority to give orders to the servants. Which leads us to sign number two.

2) Cleansing

There are six stone jars nearby. They are the kind that were used for ceremonial cleansing. Today we’re familiar with the baptism water, which is a symbol or a sign for spiritual cleansing. The six water jars are specifically made of stone because stone does not pass on uncleanness. Their total capacity is 180 gallons! They are for holding water, for purifications according to Jewish customs. The jar and the water had to be very pure, as they are for purification. So it is clear that the water in such jars could be changed into wine only by divine power. Another point is, the number seven in the Jewish circles, is a little bit like the number ten today. Ten is like the perfect number. You come to nine, you’re not quite there. In Jewish circles, seven is the perfect number, because God created everything in six days, proclaimed it to be very good, rested on the seventh day, and made it “holy.” In other words, the seventh day is a “good day” in God’s eyes! So now there is only six of these stone jars. And so somehow, we know this cleansing isn’t complete. We’re looking for something better. We already found out from John chapter one that John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin, and a colleague of Jesus in ministry. John says “I am a ceremonial cleanser, I’m a baptiser, but water isn’t sufficient to do the kind of cleansing that we need.” And he pointed to Jesus as the person who does the deeper spiritual cleansing. This leads us to sign number three.

3) The Creator

Jesus had made the water change. It had become wine! Jesus told the servants to draw the water out of the jar and take this to the master of ceremony. The servants did as they were told, and then the miracle happened. As the Son of God, Jesus has the ability to create, just like the Father, and uses water to create “good wine.” This echoes the narrative about the Creation in Genesis: God created all things and proclaimed it to be “very good.” Jesus is the creator, and with the same creational power as God. We’re told that the master of ceremony had no clue what was going on. He called the groom over, in order to learn the truth and give his opinion of the wine.  He tasted the wine and thought it was the best wine in the world, but did not know where it had come from. He comments on the host’s unorthodox behaviour. “You were supposed to serve the best wine first, when the guests’ palettes are still receptive to its quality. But you, have saved the best till now.” People always drank the best wine first at a wedding. But Jesus’ wine was even better! So the host thought that the people had been drinking the cheaper wine first instead.

But the servants knew, as they drew the water. And this was the funny thing. The Greek term architriclinus, translated as “master of ceremonies”, refers to the one in charge of the whole banquet. Usually the master of ceremonies are well aware of everything that’s going on, but here, it was the people carrying the trays around and doing things out at the back, the servants of Jesus, they understood what was going on.

4) Glory

“That through this miracle, Jesus revealed his glory.” This is a funny thing to say, because we know that Jesus is someone who heals sick people and raises dead people, and providing wine at a wedding doesn’t seem like something that’s big of a deal. But again, it’s another sign pointing forward. And here, we’re thinking, “what is this glory that was revealed to the servants?”

We will now fast forward to John chapter 17: Finally, just before Christ’s crucifixion on the cross for our sins, he prays and says “Father, now my hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you.” Now we are approaching the hour of glory.

And finally, two chapters later, in John chapter 19, we’re told that as Jesus died, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side, and there was a flow of blood and water. You know what’s interesting about John’s gospel? The other gospels has the last supper scene, where Jesus broke the bread for the disciples and said, “this my body” and gave them the wine, and said, “this is my blood poured out for the cleansing of your sin.” John’s gospel doesn’t have that. This wine sign, this water for ceremonial cleansing, that pointed forward towards the hour of Christ’s glory, seems to tell that the time will come, through Christ’s own death, the shedding of his own blood, he would cleanse his servants and his people. He would transform our lives, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

5) “The wedding of the lamb”

The fifth and final sign, which is the most important one, is that you may notice in this whole reading that there is no mention about who is the bride or groom. Something was incomplete here. Finally, in the last book of the bible, the book of Revelation, also written by John, in 19:6, John says, “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad, and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”” Jesus is the lamb and the groom. The people of God is the bride. In the Old Testament, weddings are often used as a metaphor for the kingdom of the Messiah (Isaiah 54:1-8；62:1-5). In the New Testament, Jesus often uses weddings as a metaphor for his second coming (Matthew 8:11; 22:1-4; Luke 13:29;14:15-24; cf. Revelation 19:9). The appearance of Jesus in the wedding at Cana symbolises the coming kingdom of the Messiah. It is the people of God, who come into relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who are those who will finally one day witness Christ’s return, and be united with Him.  

References:

Rev. Chadd Hafer’s message at Chris and Yvonne’s wedding, 7 Sept 2019, Christ Church Lavender Bay.

Card, Michael.; John: The Gospel of Wisdom.

Lightfoot, J. B., Still, Todd D., Witherington, Ben.; The Gospel of St. John : A Newly Discovered Commentary.

Thomas, Weisheipl, James A., Larcher, Fabian R..; Commentary on the Gospel of John.

https://www.cbtc.org.hk/archives/5227#.Xdo4kOgzY2y    

http://www.pct.org.tw/weeklyneweyes.aspx?strWID=W20151216813

Wedding preparations

After Chris surrendered the engagement ring to me in January, the ball finally got rolling…

I placed my thinking cap on and the first things I thought of were the timing, the wedding venue, makeup artist, wedding gown, and photographer! Chris’ work project is still in Melbourne and only comes back one weekend a fortnight, so I did most of the initial organising.

Timing:

I like the KISS principle (keep it simple), and thought a simple wedding in April will do. However, Chris intended to invite guests from interstate, and wanted a “proper” wedding so that the guests find it worthwhile flying in. April would be too rushed. Winter was out of the question because I am afraid of cold weather. Furthermore, Chris thinks things die in fall (falling leaves), and things grow in spring (flowers blossoming), so spring is better than fall. Therefore we decided on September as the timing.

Venue:

I thought somewhere centralised and close to the train station will be the best for the guests, but Chris thought the city is too crowded and messy, so North Sydney popped into my head. Some friends told me Anglican churches are pretty, so I googled for Anglican churches close to North Sydney train station and found Christ Church Lavender Bay and St Thomas. Considering that Chris and I aren’t the most social people in the world, St Thomas seemed too big. Therefore, the decision to book Christ Church Lavender Bay was pretty easy to make. Rev Lachlan Edwards kindly went through the paperwork with us, eg. the notice of intention to marry, and invited us to “the Gathering” fellowship group. We had another meeting closer to the wedding date and the wedding rehearsal on the eve before the wedding.

https://www.cclb.org.au/

(Photo by Des Chu)

(Photo by Alex Huang)

We decided to have our reception in a Chinese restaurant because it is great value for money and very tasty. We chose Bondi Zilver because the venue looks nicer than the city restaurants, parking is free for the whole evening after 6pm, and it’s a touristy spot good for guests from interstate and overseas. Roy, the friendly general manager, met with us twice to organise things related to the reception.

https://www.zilverbondi.com.au/

Chris and I have many relatives living in Taiwan. Furthermore, my paternal relatives have to take turns caring for my grandfather, who has dementia and cannot live independently, so they cannot fly to Sydney for the ceremony. We picked the Good Day Restaurant in Linko because it is close to where my mom lives in Taiwan, and will be holding this reception on Sunday 29Dec, 2019.

http://goodday.looker.tw/

Make up:

In terms of make-up, I came across the works of Martha several years ago when I was randomly browsing the internet and thought her skills are pretty amazing. Therefore, I booked for trial make up and was very satisfied. Another easy decision made: I decided to book her for the whole day. She had an assistant with her named Joey on the wedding day.

http://www.marthamok.com/

Wedding dress:

On the day of the make-up trial, I looked at some of the sample wedding dresses Martha had which were on sale. This is where things become very subjective. When I tried a few dresses on, I felt ball gowns made me look pregnant and generally wide, mermaid dresses made my hips look wide, and semi-transparent materials in the belly area doesn’t seem appropriate for weddings. A-line dresses seemed the best. Although there were several pretty dresses, none seemed suitable for me.

https://www.blanche-elegance.com/anna-wang

Then, I googled up another wedding dress store called Emerald Bridal, which was very close to my home. The dresses were gorgeous there. The store lady is a lovely Taiwanese lady called Sandra who knew instinctively what suited me and what didn’t. My broad shoulders look worse when I wear anything with sleeves and a neckline that goes straight across. The sweetheart neckline looked the best. In terms of the silhouette, A-line and layered skirts seemed best. There was one dress I felt almost certain that I will buy.

https://emeraldbridal.com.au

However, I am someone who works by “the rule of 3s” and thought I’d better go to a third shop. Furthermore, when I asked Chris what his preferences are, he said he doesn’t like anything that’s glittery, fungus-like in pattern, or puffy. Therefore, I brought him along to the third shop so we can make a joint decision and he won’t get the chance to grumble about the dress in the future. We went to the Brides of Sydney in Sydney CBD. The shop had so many dresses that I got totally confused. The store lady saw how confused I was and picked five dresses for me to try. Out of these dresses, there was one I liked which Chris had no objection to. It was slightly champagne coloured, not glittery, not puffy, with sheath silhouette in the inner layer and A-line silhouette in the semi-transparent outer layer. The neckline was very similar in style to my favourite dress at Emerald Bridal but much cheaper, so I ended up buying this dress. This dress was being sold $600 lower than the original market price because it was custom-made for someone but the stores person accidentally ordered in the wrong colour!

https://www.bridesofsydney.com.au/product/3057-allure-romance-bridal-gown/

Photography:

When I was doing an educational exchange program in the Mackay Memorial Hospital in 2016, I browsed through some of the Family Medicine trainee doctors’ Facebook profiles and saw the works of a Taiwanese photographer called Sixpence. This was the first time I realised how fantastic wedding photos can look when they are taken by great photographers! 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201707544642318&type=3

I mentioned about wedding photography to Chris and he said he’s got a friend called Alex who is a professional photographer and won many awards. I clicked into Alex’s website and another easy decision was made. The photos are simply breathtaking!

https://puremotion.com.au/

(Photo by Alex Huang)

Chris was adamant that he did not want professional pre-wedding photography and he did not want any photos of me wearing the wedding dress before the actual wedding. Therefore, any professional photos in a wedding dress had to be taken on the day of the wedding or after.

Rewind to 2010: I was walking around North Zhongshan Road in Taipei, looking for an artistic photo shop so I could have some pretty photos taken while I was still in my 20s. I went into a bridal dress shop which had second hand dresses on sale. I bought quite a few dresses there at bargain price, including a wedding dress and a pink layered-skirt silhouette dress. The artistic photo shop I went to, called Dreamworks, lets me have photos taken in the wedding dress at “artistic photos price” (much cheaper than pre-wedding photos price). So whoa-la, professional photos in the wedding dress already taken in 2010! Chris can’t grumble about it because it had already happened (but he didn't want me to wear that wedding dress for our wedding because he thought it's "glittery, fungus-like in pattern, and puffy")!

http://www.dreamwedding.com.tw

And I thought the pink layered skirt dress would be great for the reception, so one reception dress sorted!

Deborah, our wonderful bridesmaid, ended up being the one taking most of our pre-wedding photos.

Since we got such an amazing photographer on our wedding day, we obviously wanted lots of time for photos. Therefore we decided on a morning wedding ceremony and an evening reception so we can take many photos in between. The route was: McMahon’s point (to capture some great Sydney landmarks), Glebe (the longest time where Chris had lived in one place), RPA (where I used to work), then La Perouse (I like the amazing rocks and sea, and the sunset can be seen).

(Photo by Alex Huang)

It was great having a friend as a photographer, and he took some pretty fun photos such as this:

I saw Alex taking this photo as our car was entering into the church driveway and knew it will turn out fun! Chris looked like an adorable caged animal there, but a beast of the night was lurking behind him in “the cage”!

Since Chris did not object to post-wedding photography, we will also get some photos taken at major Taipei landmarks when we have our reception there. I looked through some internet reviews and decided to have “Hawk” as our photographer. His photo images look crisp (that’s why he got nicknamed “Hawk”), and I like hawks very much.

https://hawkimage.com/

Wedding cake:

It seemed like most of the weddings I have attended had cake-cutting. Sugar artist Mio sculps the most amazing figures. We used to attend the same church and I am very grateful she agreed to help, because she doesn’t actually do wedding cakes commercially. Chris didn’t want a wedding cake, but when I mentioned that I really wanted one, he became bossy about it and insisted on a square cake so each piece can be divided evenly for the guests. I wanted a round cake and didn’t bother listening to Chris’ grumblings when it came to this decision.  

https://www.facebook.com/Deliciously-Yummy-Sydney-506026276101231/

(Photo by Des Chu)

Recruiting the bridal party:

Deborah was the obvious choice, since we’ve been through a lot together. There were a few other good friends but I didn’t really want to have married people as bridesmaids. I’d rather help “advertise” my single friends. For Chris, John was the obvious choice. Tony was another one. My childhood friend Judy wanted to fly in from Taiwan to attend my wedding so this was another obvious choice. I got a young family flying in from Brisbane and their cute little daughter Iris asked if I was looking for a flower girl. It was so sweet of her to ask! However, the poor girl had a stage fright during the wedding ceremony and didn’t end up walking down the aisle.

(Photo by Alex Huang)

Accessories:

I ordered most of my accessories (for hair, jewelleries) from Taiwan or Taobao. I also ordered a red Chinese style (qipao) toasting dress, the veil, shoulder wrap and bridesmaids’ dress from Taobao. It took two goes with the veil and the shoulder wrap before I got something that worked well. I liked the shoulder wrap, which had a qipao style neckline to it, and the flower pattern actually matched the wedding dress flower pattern. Not bad for something ordered over the internet! There’s quite an element of luck to this! Chris’ clothes were easy to sort out: we just went to Myers and Lowes for the suit, shirt, and bow tie.

(Photo by Crystal Wang)

Help from family and friends:

Chris wanted to stay in his church after getting married, so I am the one who has to make the switch. Therefore, most of the helpers are from his church, CP10. Rev Chadd Hafer did two premarital counselling sessions with us. He also did the address and prayer in the ceremony. Rev Gloria Fu also did two premarital counselling sessions with us. Cerise, who worked as a wedding planner previously, helped us out a lot. She gave us a spread sheet which helped us get more organised, and we met at her place twice. She attended the rehearsal and oversaw everything on the wedding day. A team of people, Bismark, Kit, Parisa, Ruth and Liling, helped out with wedding ceremony refreshments. The music team consisted of Jonathan, Vivian, Sam Yip and Margret. Arthur was our chauffer on the wedding day. Ben, Lecter, Vivien and Philip helped us transport some relatives and friends in their cars. Leon, Liz, Jimmy, Feng and my cousin Danis were ushers. Jacque did the bible reading. Ray, Chris’ cousin, who is highly talented in music, sang and played the piano during the signing of the registry. I thought he was the most suitable person for this, not only because of his musical talent, but he was actually the one who said to me, “this is my cousin Chris” in 2008, when Chris and I first met. Jason and Ruth helped us out with the wedding video, and hopefully we can play the video to the reception guests in Taiwan at the end of the year. Des took many great photos for us (as a guest, not official). Sam Yick helped with the announcements. Ben helped with the audio-visuals. Wayne was our reception MC. Auguste, Chris’ uncle in law, helped us pick the wine for the reception. Mr Hsu, a visitor from Taiwan, and my mom both helped out a lot with cleaning up the house.

Invites and program sheet:

The wedding invite was a rush job designed by Chris and I. I got invited to the church plant celebration service of the 1503 Mission Network in May and saw that as the opportunity to catch up with some friends there, so we had to get the invites ready before then.

Now, the program sheet had to look better than the invite. Charlene, Ray’s wife, kindly helped us design a very beautiful program sheet. She also asked us about the theme colours for the wedding and that was when I decided on pink and light blue.  

Wedding expo:

It was fun attending the wedding expo at Rouse Hill on 14April. Wedding fireworks and dry ice looked fantastic but was too extravagant for us. The 360o glam booth video was fun, but then we didn’t know how to pose, and looked pretty awkward. We think the same thing can happen to the guests and decided not to use them.

https://youtu.be/RmNq-LPvtdY

What really caught our eyes was the magnetic shots stall. They take photos for guests and print them out as magnets. It looks fun and the photos themselves can count as the small take-home gift. We decided to book them for the reception. We used the beautiful flowers from Charlene’s program sheet as part of the photo frame.

https://magneticshots.com/

Seating arrangements:

This was something which Chris and I debated a lot about. I thought people should be given the flexibility of talking to people they know well as well as strangers. So, for each table, we tried placing some people who knew each other together, and also placing people who don’t know each other but might have some common topic to talk about, eg. people with similar occupations or in a similar life stage (singles, newly married, family with children, etc). We tried to placing at least one person with some theological training on each table as well, just in case if some people got interested about Christianity.

Flowers:

The church florist, Litsa Flowers, supplies flowers at the communion table for weddings.

http://litsaflowers.com.au/

We got Lucy’s Florist for our bouquets, corsage, and rose petals. Competition was fierce during the bouquet throw!

https://lucysflorist.com/

(Photo by Alex Huang)

(Photo by Des Chu)

(Photo by Des Chu)

Cosmetic stuff:

I was advised by Martha to get my hair coloured by May from Show Salon, eyelashes permed, and wear circle contact lenses. I only ended up colouring my hair, so that my hair will look more “3D” on the wedding day. At the end of May, I got May to colour my hair. As soon as Chris saw my hair he grumbled non-stop saying he didn’t like dyed hair. So I didn’t touch up my roots and allowed my hair to grow out into a “shadow root” type of effect (after 3 months, there is no longer a sharp demarcation between the dyed and undyed hair because each individual hair grows at different rates). Personally, I liked it: I got an element of my own hair colour plus an element of enhanced colour. We also got the salon to cut Chris’ hair and he looked much better as a result.

http://showsalonboutique.gettimely.com/

In 2012, I was highly traumatised after trying on eyelash extensions for the first time in my life because my own eyelashes fell out with the extensions and it took a few years before my eyelash grew normal again! I will never get anything done to my eyelashes again! I looked at some of the photos of Asians with permed eyelashes and it looked weird, so no way was I getting that.

I had one experience of wearing circle contact lenses in 2011 on a TV show. It was very uncomfortable and I thought my eyes looked like fake doll eyes. Furthermore, these contact lenses irritated my eyes and made my eyes bloodshot. So that was out of the question. And thank God I didn’t wear those contact lenses for the wedding, because it was very windy on the day of our wedding and my eyes got very irritated. In fact, Martha had a difficult time applying my eye makeup because my eyes kept watering! I was lucky that Joyce, Chris’ aunt, gave me a pair of sunglasses the day before the wedding, because that helped block the wind.

(Photo by Alex Huang)

(Photo by Deborah Goh)

A month before the wedding, I noticed had a massive volume loss to my cheeks. I didn’t know if it was stress or a natural part of ageing. I felt a bit tempted to do something about it. I knew that skin microneedling can stimulate collagen growth, so I shot an email to Eastwood dermatologist Philip Tong. He mentioned that me that medical grade devices work better than home devices. However, he does not do Dermapen. This meant that I had to buy the Dermapen and not some other home devices that could simply be ordered over the internet for a hundred dollars. I thought that was too troublesome and did not bother. Although Philip mentioned that laser and injectables work more instantaneously, I’ve never had injectables in my life and do not intend to get it in the future either. Furthermore, the downtime for Dermapen and lasers meant it was too risky for me to get these things done a month before the wedding anyway. So I didn’t end up having any cosmetic medicine treatment done at all.

https://www.drphiltong.com/

I thought the nails are quite important because of the exchange of rings during the wedding ceremony. My friend Vivien recommended Athvenus nails in Eastwood, so I had the first manicure in my life done at that place and got gel nails. It was beautiful. However, I think this manicure will be a once in a lifetime thing only, because I was so horrified about my cuticles being cut off and them filing the sides of my nails... these ways of cutting increases the risk of paronychia and ingrown nails!

https://www.athvenus.com.au/

Chris and I aren’t exactly the best at keeping in touch with people and we are very thankful that so many people had taken time off their busy schedules to attend the wedding, and many people have helped us out even though we didn’t really help them out before! This special day will always be a great memory for us!

For more photos, please see:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JsyXxnv7YaFj6tzo7

Christ Church Lavender Bay

24March, 2019

Visited Christ Church Lavender Bay for the first time today. This is the church I will be getting married at later this year. Coincidentally bumped into the person who reformed Australia’s gun laws in 1996! Many associations quickly popped into my mind because the Christchurch massacre had only happened about a week prior, and Christchurch was the place where my fiancé did most of his secondary schoolings.

"With God all things are possible."

The speaker in chaplain CD we were listening to in the car said this on the way to the church. Then we read this verse in the bible reading in the church. Then the preacher said this again in his preaching!

6April, 2019

Got invited to “the Gathering,” a monthly outreach at Christ Church Lavender Bay, by Rev. Edwards from Christ Church Lavender Bay, who will be our marriage celebrant. Bumped into another sister from my fiancé’s church who got married in this church. What an coincidence. This gathering is quite a pleasant gathering to bring non-believer friends to, as the atmosphere is pretty relaxed.

7April, 2019

The adventure is about to begin!

A huge “shipwreck” photo was the first thing I saw as soon as we stepped into the office of Rev. Edwards at Christ Church Lavender Bay on Sunday to fill out the notice of intended marriage! Turns out it wasn’t a shipwreck, but a sailing race. There was also a life saving buoy on the wall. Turns out Rev. Edwards used to work as a sailor! This inevitably made me think of the “City of Sails,” Auckland, where I lived during secondary school.

The following day, I got notified that the clinic I am working in will be closed for renovation in late May/early June, so I will be jobless for a week or two. This made me thought about a medical short missions opportunity I heard about earlier in the year. There was no quota for my fiancé, so I told God I won’t apply for this trip unless something unusual happens. I guess something has happened, and when I enquired with the organisation again, they still have one quota left for a medical doctor. Looks like this adventure is destined to happen this year!