I often feel... out of the loop. I'd say a great part of that is owing to the fact that all decision making happens in a language I don't understand, but it's not uncommon for me to get into a van and not know where it's going. We pull up in front of some place and I say, "So we're there?". That's the way it was with this wedding... Henry told me that an old friend of his (Christian) was getting married and he would like for me to go with him, but he didn't know when it was. A few days later he said, "There's a wedding tonight" so I assumed it was the same one. Because I don't have a sari that's nice enough for a wedding, I went to Henry's daughter's house where an army of Indian women pulled and tucked and pinned and I came out looking like an overfluffed chicken. I had no idea what was in store. We loaded into a van that was already populated by Henry's brother's family (Vijay, etc.) then stopped to pick up a few stragglers. When we stopped to pick up Mary (who I thought was out of town!) I said, "We all know this couple? Mary, how do you know them?" "I don't." She said. And that was how the night went. We arrived at this great field that was full of lights and flowers and loud music and the smell of rice. As it turns out, this was a different wedding - a Hindu wedding - and the guests must have topped 2,000 people. To my stunned face, Henry said, "Invitations are given out by household, and 'household' is a very loose term." In our case, "household" meant anyone Henry is related to or considers as close as family. A lot of people. More and more people kept showing up that I knew, uncles and second cousins and people who worked in the mission. Even a few orphans made their way onto the list - Ajay and Rajashekar, the boys who sleep in the next room, were there. "Ajay! You were invited?" It was raucous. There was more food than anyone knew what to do with and loud music - more like a carnival than a wedding. Hindu marriages last for 3 days and we were only there for the first night - a night of celebration. The actual CEREMONY is the next day (as I was told) which I didn't see. I did, however, get to have my picture taken with the "happy couple". It's rare that you'd get an Indian to smile in a picture and I didn't want to be the only grinning idiot (read: American) up there, so before we went onto the stage I begged people, "Please, will you smile? Are you gonna smile? You have such a nice smile!" I tried my hardest to keep a straight face but I kept laughing. It was impossible not to. The evening turned out to be so much fun, so unexpected and crazy.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2 NASB