The Weddings Are Over. For Now.

My dad asked me on the phone last night if we had a wedding every week over here. I said, "No, sometimes we have three a week."

It's been in the national news that this year has more weddings than ever before, and it's true. But, I think our string of weddings is over for a while. I have a couple guys who are left unmarried and we're working on finding wives for them (arranged marriages...)

One of our pastors wants us to come visit his native place and has been bugging forever. I've promised him I'll come for his marriage. He's been diligently searching for a girl but, suffice to say - he's WAY too picky.

Wedding In Far Far Away

We are leaving tomorrow for the wedding of one of our former Bible Students, now pastor/ good friend, Dinesh. It's in a village on the border of the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. It will take twenty hours to drive there. We leave Friday and hope to be back Monday - whirlwind trip.

Sunny's Wedding

One of our Bible Students got married last week. His family is Hindu and forced him into it, but at least they relented at the end and he married a Christian girl - which was an answer to prayer, let me tell you.

We had to walk 7 Kms through the mountains to get there. 7 Kms in, 7 Kms out.

The terrain.


Sunny. He had to hold that hanky to his mouth the whole time. Nobody knows why, they just always have. He has a sword in his other hand, it has hankies tied all around it, I don't know the significance of that either, but everybody does it.

Shankar And Manju Got Married

In 1998 I traveled to India for the first time. I stayed at a Children's Home/Orphanage in Rajasthan. It was there that I fell in love with India AND my now husband.

Occasionally, the (now grown) children find their way to O. and me. Two children who were at the Children's Home the same time as me in 1998-99 were Shankar and Manju. I don't remember Shankar, but I remember Manju. She and her little sister, Anju, were two of the lovingest, sweetest little girls there and they attached themselves to my good friend Karen.

Shankar is from O.'s village and came to work with us as a security guard. Last year he brought Manju from the orphanage with the intent to marry her.

Their wedding was last night.

I told Manju her wedding reminded me of mine.

We were both married in this city.
We both were married on a Sunday night.
We both were at our weddings without a single family member in attendance (she's an orphan)
We both married men from the same little village in Rajasthan.

She wore my veil.

Signing the register (of course these pictures are in backwards order).

Manju.
There was a real wedding photographer. I'd really rather not jump up in the middle of the ceremony to attempt to get good shots, that's why most of mine stink.