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

Melbourne trip 2019: The story of one seed

It was just a random weekend, nothing too special, but I flew off to Melbourne last weekend because Chris has been the one flying back to Sydney most of the time since he got placed in Melbourne for his work project two years ago. So just to be a little bit more fair, I should fly there occasionally too. Last weekend I wasn’t working, so I flew there, staying less than 48hours so I can come back to work on Monday.

Went to the CBD again, and went to a few other places I’ve never been, including Richmond, Williamstown and St Kilda. 

On Sunday, I went to Glory City Church to listen to a talk by Roger Chiang, a Taiwanese photographer. 

He shared his testimony, an amazing story about a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood, as well as some photography tips. Roger’s wife came to Melbourne for working holidays and got to know Christ there. Subsequently, he also got to know Christ after some supernatural encounters. The most memorable thing for me that afternoon was the story about the missionary couple and their daughter Aggie: although it sounded like fiction, it is actually nonfiction and moved me to tears.

https://www.epm.org/resources/1986/Feb/18/story-eternal-perspective/

https://sfnazarene.org/the-parable-of-david-svea-flood/

Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa—to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to go out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.

This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts.

They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood—a tiny woman of only four feet, eight inches tall—decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded.

But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone.

Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina.

The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days.

Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.

Within eight months both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to “Aggie” and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.

This family loved the little girl and was afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible college in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.

Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there.

One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn’t read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD.

Aggie jumped in her car and went straight to a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” she demanded.

The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago...the birth of a white baby...the death of the young mother...the one little African boy who had been led to Christ...and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ...the children led their parents to Christ...even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village...

All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.

For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden. There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God-because God took everything from me.”

After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.”

Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.

“Papa?” she said tentatively.

He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said, “I never meant to give you away.”

“It’s all right Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.”

The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.

“God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.” He turned his face back to the wall.

Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.

“Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life...

“Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.”

The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades.

Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America—and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.

A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, where a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel’s spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.

“Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. “It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.”

He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, “You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history.”

In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.

The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother’s white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” He then followed with Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

(An excerpt from Aggie Hurst, Aggie: The Inspiring Story of A Girl Without A Country [Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1986].)

Furthermore, Aggie Hurst's husband DV Hurst seemed quite influential in the Seattle community... when he died there was even an article on the Seattle Times about him: 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/obituary-dv-hurst-former-kirkland-mayor-northwest-college-leader/

http://www.kirklandreporter.com/news/former-kirkland-mayor-northwest-college-president-d-v-hurst-obituary/

I’ve also searched the Northwest University archives and found some old photos of newspaper articles, since I want to be sure I do not spread anything that is untrue. There are a few small differences and additional details in the newspaper article. For example: 1) the Natives took care of Aggie for a little while after the Ericksons died, 2) David was 78 when Aggie met him, 4) David had to leave Africa because he needed an eye surgery, 5) the Erickson were supposed to bring Aggie back to Sweden within a year but couldn’t because they died, 6) When David got back to Sweden, he married Svea’s sister. On the eighth year of David’s return back in Sweden, she also died soon after giving birth to a daughter, Ingrid, and this half-sister/cousin was also given up for adoption. Aggie and Ingrid experienced many uncanny similarities in their lives and we can see that genetics really do have a strong influence on people! (You can really see why David hated God… a similar thing happened to him again back in Sweden.)

https://archives.northwestu.edu/handle/nu/30352

https://archives.northwestu.edu/handle/nu/26507

Visions and recurring motifs: the call of God, and making an impact

As we seek for God to be at work in the world, we can reflect on what it means to be invited into God’s work. God is also calling us to be sent ones, to make an impact that tells of his Kingdom, salvation and character. Just as Isaiah replied “Here am I. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8), we must also decide on what our answer will be, and what impact we might make in partnership with God and others.

To what, where or who is God calling and inviting me to partner with him?

What part do I hope to play in God’s transformation of people (and the world!)?

Do I feel particularly called to a particular ministry, community or workplace? How do you hope God will use me in this area?

How do I feel about the ministry God is calling me to? Excited? Daunted? Prepared?

What kind of legacy of faith do I hope to leave? If someone was to describe the impact that I have made for God’s kingdom what do I hope they would say?

“Many people have never taken the time to step back and intentionally look back at our entire life, seeking to identify an overarching theme or identify lessons that God had continually been trying to teach us.”[1]

---

[1] Seidel, "Life Story and Spiritual Formation."

I believe that God often calls people through visions and recurring motifs. For me, this included motifs of the ship, the wind, the orphan, the heart, the fruits, the eagle and the bride.

When I was a new Christian, I was especially inspired by the verse on the fruits of the Spirit. In the months before Chris became one of my housemates, the motif of “the fruits” predominated.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/09/high-times-hard-times-hand-of-god.html

During my first few years in the work force, the motif of “the orphan” vs “the heart of flesh” predominated, as I began to shift from being task and goal-orientated to being more relationship-orientated.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-orphan-heart-rev-james-liaw.html

“Eagles and flying” is another motif that comes up from time to time. Various people I know have likened me to an eagle: not restricted by groundly borders as I have flown across so many places, and highly independent. Personally, I feel especially inspired by scriptural verses with eagles in it. Birds are my favourite animals and I enjoy the idea of flying so much that I always go for the roller coasters, drop towers and pendulum rides in amusement parks. 

Whilst studying in the theological college and doing some field education in the church, there has been several years where “the ship” has been a frequently recurring motif. After all, ships are commonly used as a metaphor for the church.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2017/10/ships.html

https://youtu.be/IqKT2GT_RZE

Then, ever since preaching my first sermon in the church on Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Valley of Dry Bones, the wind has become the dominant motif.  

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-first-sermon-ezekiel-371-14-valley.html

https://youtu.be/YtAygiZQvbE

As the bride of Chris, “the bride” has also become another dominant motif lately.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/10/true-bride-vs-false-bride.html

Looking back on the wedding, it was a particularly windy on the day Chris and I got married. Some of Chris’ colleagues started laughing about Chris and this wind because his job is “tunnel ventilation” engineering: ie. his job is to create wind artificially! Between the wedding and the reception, we went to a few places that has special meanings for us for photoshoots. One of the places we went to was the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the first place I have worked in as a doctor. We decided to take some photos at the new murals. I did not even look to see what was drawn on the wall. Interestingly, a month later, when our photographer Alex sent us the photos he took, the pictures reminded me of the visions from the Valley of Dry Bones! It seems as though God is speaking to us through the murals!

My job involves trying to restore people to health and wellbeing where possible, sometimes even making certain decisions that impacts the life and death of a person.

The question now is how can God use us to make a spiritual impact on others?

Eventually, Chris and I will be doing this together as a team. However, he is not quite “ready” currently, so I can only speak on my own behalf for now. I long for the wind that is the “ruah” or the Spirit. I long for the restoration of life that will last to eternity.

The calling to remain in the medical field is clear. This was the conviction I had when I listened to George Verwer’s message a few years ago: 

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2014/10/revival-prepare-thy-heart.html

So is the calling for missions.

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2016/09/mission-impossible.html

https://youtu.be/VtQbzRmmMfk

If you combine these together, the term “medical missionary” comes up. However, we are waiting on God’s reply as to “who, what, when, where, and how.”  

Meanwhile, we are to remain faithful in the current position God has placed us in as we wait on Him. 

true bride vs false bride

Your next steps: As you look back over the past few months and also look forward to 2020 - do you have a sense of where God is leading you? What do your next steps look like?

It's been a bit more than a month since I got married with Chris, and it is the Feast of Tabernacles this week. When I went to Jerusalem with the ICEJ group for the Feast of Tabernacles in 2015, we saw a huge wedding dress on the Tower of David.

During that trip, I even bought two bottles of the “Cana Wedding Wine” in Cana (and this was the passage we used for our wedding)!

This week, messages about the true bride vs the prostitute kept coming up recurrently from various places.

On Saturday, I watched an exegetic video on the Book of Revelations by Mei-Lun Chau 喬美崙老師, where she talked about the contrast between the Bride of Christ vs the Prostitute mentioned in Revelation 17-19. She emphasised that one is either a true bride, or a false bride. And the false bride = the Prostitute. There is no middle way.

On Sunday, the message at CABC-WR was on Hosea, the prophet who was commanded by God to marry a whore called Gomer. This marriage relationship between Gomer and Hosea symbolises the rebellion of the Israelites against God, ie. the covenant failure of Israel. A quote by Charles Spurgeon was used in this sermon: “If Christ is not all to you, he is nothing to you.”

That same evening, I did my spiritual devotional using the material by Crossroads Publications 宣教日引,  which happened to be on Revelations 2:22, which again talks about committing adultery (moicheuonta) and warns Christians against adultering with the world! Then, on Monday, one of the leaders of the short medical mission team I went to Vanuatu with shared this exact same devotional with the team!

Those who can understand Chinese, here were the sources:

https://youtu.be/b00DrEyFH3o?t=3448

https://www.cabc-wr.org/?sermons=20191013_%E9%A9%AC%E5%B9%BF%E5%B7%9D_%E6%B0%B8%E4%B8%8D%E6%94%B9%E5%8F%98%E7%9A%84%E7%88%B1&lang=zh-hans

http://www.missionpathway.org/mpData/topic2.cgi?imgdate=101319

Ok, it is quite clear that God is speaking to me here, reminding me about my position as a "Bride of Christ." I must admit that over the past few months, many things have occupied my mind and God is definitely not one of the first ones. My husband and the wedding itself seemed to occupy my mind a lot more than God! And also the fear about having to move to Melbourne if his work project is always in Melbourne (sorry, Melbournians, I like Sydney a lot better than Melbourne). I can only pray that God will give me the power to get my acts together again! Gotta realign with God first before we can know where God is leading us!

   

Community

Consider how your life story fits into and contributes toward the building of community in your sphere of influence. Remember your individual story fits into God’s larger story, the metanarrative - the overarching story of humankind. For Christians, this metanarrative is the biblical narrative of salvation history - creation, fall, redemption and finally, new creation.

The first thing that popped into my mind when I hear the word “community” is Eastwood. This is the place I spend the majority of my time in, because I am working as a GP there six days a week!

However, I am going to focus this journal entry on the Christian community. It was around 2013 when I came to realise that one can be extremely involved and devoted to a church without actually building deep interpersonal relationships. One can be doing heaps of “discipleship” courses without much discipleship happening. I had grown up task-orientated and goal-orientated because all the role models around me were like that. The church environment I was in was also task-orientated and goal-orientated. Church co-workers were given spreadsheets with tick boxes asking us to tick off the number of times we prayed and studied the bible during the week. Each church co-worker got assigned a few people who we had to regularly talk to and follow up on, and there was a tick box for that too. Although the environment drove us to do certain things, once I got out of that environment, I did not feel a desire to do these things spontaneously. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with tick boxes to help us get organised. But some people (including me) may be ticking off these boxes without a genuine care for people and get a false sense of security that they are doing something for God whenever they ticked these boxes. There were a few deep interpersonal relationships formed from that environment which continued until today, but the proportion is very small when I take into account how many people I had fellowship with during my time there.

In 2016, I changed church in order to do my field education at a Baptist church. This church is great, but I did not have the guts or the energy to become very involved with the people in this church.

Another example of a Christian community experience was the short medical mission trip I went on this year with Care Ministries International (CMI). Teamwork happened in a pretty amazing fashion. I felt as though I had gone back into the New Testament era where the community of Christ lived together in love. During this trip, I felt a bit closer to where God wants me to be. There is also a sense of “inheritance” during this trip. The previous mission trips to Cambodia organised by CMI comprised of very experienced doctors and dentists around retirement age. This time, the doctors and dentists are mostly under 35, and including several “parent and child” pairings. More on the trip in the following link:

https://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com/2019/06/short-medical-mission-trip-to-vanuatu.html

Now, I am in a transitional period. My husband and I go to different churches. Chris is certain that he wants to stay in his church, which meant I am the one who has to make the switch. His church seems like a great church, and many brothers and sisters there have helped us out in our wedding. Rick Warren said, “We are created for community. You are called to belong, not just believe.” May the hand of God lead the way!

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