It’s been a few weeks since we’ve arrived back in Hong Kong to begin our teaching years. And though some things are familiar, (and even eerily comforting) like the constant hum of the air conditioner and anonymous crowds, we miss home. We miss the meaningful conversations and the heartfelt fellowship we can only find in friendships steeped through years of joys and heartache.
We are ever-grateful that we had the opportunity to share our wedding with the best of friends back home in Richmond. This is where we’ve grown up. This is where our faith was formed. This was where we were challenged to follow Christ with our band of believers and pursue Him recklessly. What an honour to celebrate with those who have walked with us over the years!
Over the last year, when Michelle and I planned our wedding, we really didn’t know what to expect. Frankly speaking, neither of us had ever given our wedding any thought. There were no dreamt-up childhood fantasies of a special wedding dress or a little white chapel. In fact, we hatched out most of our plans quite unromantically, bumbling around ideas and breaking etiquette. The fact that our wedding turned out is a testament to our friends- both to their love and competence.
Michelle and I joke about how God used our friends to hijack our wedding day. Throughout the planning we had just hoped for the best and prayed that somehow our wedding would be a testimony of God’s goodness in our lives. God took that prayer and showed us the full spectrum of his goodness. The sun blasted its radiance and held off the rain until the evening. All the details we had labored over for months were perfectly set by our friends and helpers. The music and sermon at the ceremony was awesome. Our polaroid cameras actually worked and our guests had fun! The day went so well.
At the end of the night many guests at the reception dinner commented that they could sense the deep love and fellowship we shared as a church community – that we had something that they had never really seen before. They saw a Christian community whole-heartedly celebrating not just the love between two people, but the love between the church as a body. They shared that they could see a God who was real, who indeed changes people and works in wonderful ways to bring about His purposes and glory.
The thing that Michelle and I miss most about home is being able to celebrate with friends. Not just celebrate in extraordinary ways for weddings and such, but in the ordinary ways when we simply live life together. For in those moments of genuine fellowship, the body is united and Christ is shown to the world.
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