The Thing Was Done Suddenly

In the last month we’ve felt like a trailer in a tornado. For anyone who has gone through the experience of getting one's daughter married a few days after Christmas, you will probably empathize. I must admit, however, that doing this in a different country such as the Dominican Republic makes it a whole new ball game.

Somewhere during the whirlwind Carol and I read the account of Hezekiah in II Chronicles 29. His father had turned the heart of Judah to the ways of the kings of Israel. Molten images had been set up for Baalim in every corner of Jerusalem, and the house of the LORD had been neglected.

When Hezekiah began to reign he wanted to do what was right in the sight of God. The first thing he did was to clean out the house of the LORD and to establish the role of the Levites. When it was all cleaned up Hezekiah rose early and told the rulers of the city to gather at the house of the LORD. He told them that he wanted burnt offerings and sin offerings to be made for all Israel … now! So they scrambled to get things done.

In all the rush and confusion there were not enough priests to handle all the burnt offerings. But by the end of the time this comment was made, “So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.” In other words, it got done. It may not have been done perfectly, and things were a bit hectic, but it got done.

When Carol and I talked about this portion of Scripture together we couldn’t help but apply it to what was happening with our daughter’s wedding. In fact, when we read the conclusion of the whole story we laughed out loud:

And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared
the people: for the thing was done suddenly. II Chron 29:36

Notice that God had prepared the heart of the people and that there was rejoicing. I feel that this is what happened to us by the end of the wedding. So let me catch you up on what happened.

When our daughter was first put into prison we began to pray about ways to encourage her. Since I was at the age and experience where I could retire, and it was probable that she could be released after 3 ½ years of her sentence, we decided to see if it were possible to be in the DR when she was released. Our desire was to give her a half-way house, so to speak, so she could have a stable place away from her old environment so she could put her life back together. At the same time we could spend some time with our daughter and salvage some of the relationship we’d lost over the years.

When Carol found the math position at Santiago Christian School on line and I was eventually hired we felt that this was allowed by God to accomplish this purpose. One needs to bear in mind that this plan took over three years to concoct and hatch. It required interviews, retirement, studying calculus for a year, moving to a foreign country, and a myriad other life changing activities designed for the purpose of being in the right place at the right time to help our daughter. We knew that God did not need us to accomplish His work in her life. We were simply asking God to allow us to be part of it.

Cherish met Carlos in prison while he was ministering at the prison with his sister a year ago last Thanksgiving. At that time Cherish would still be in prison another six months and we had already been in the country four months. So this whirlwind romance came out of left field for both Cherish and us, and it is not what either of us anticipated. So let’s see how this pencils out on paper … by the time we get back to Moscow, assuming we stay here for the third year as we’ve promised, we will have spent four years of our life in trade to get six months with our daughter. Yep! It was worth it!

Another wrinkle in the fabric of our man-made plans was the Presidential pardon. None of us ever thought that our daughter would be pardoned by the president of this country. And yet through a series of amazing circumstances this is exactly what happened. So now, because of this one event, she is allowed (actually “required”) to leave the country, and her new husband is able to take a job in Peru that was offered to him.

This whole thing is not surprising. I’ve been a Christian long enough to know that my plans will almost never work out, and that what happens in their place is always better. “God’s plan is better than ours.” I need to say that over several times because this is basically the definition of a life of faith, right?

A man’s heart deviseth his way:
But the LORD directeth his steps. Prov 16:9

In one sense we are fortunate that the wedding actually happened. I suppose part of the reason for this feeling of disorganization and chaos is simply because we are in the DR and our daughter has adapted to the Latin life style. It is something I’m still not comfortable with, to say the least, but it has something to do with spontaneity and getting things done by personal contacts and face-to-face communication.

To start with, whether or not there would be a wedding was up in the air several times. When they were first engaged they enthusiastically wrote a number of people indicating that they would be married in December. As time went on, her fiancé was not finding a job and they had no money. Since things didn’t seem to be working out, they postponed the wedding. Unfortunately, they didn’t inform everyone.

My son in Japan wrote to say that he had bought a plane ticket and was coming to the wedding in December.

This helped them to decide to get married on the same day they had announced previously but re-arranged the plans so that it would fit a minimum budget. In that sense I believe God blessed them by supplying their needs. For example, a family from my school allowed them to use the beautiful surroundings of their country home for the wedding, and a photographer volunteered her professional services, both of these as a gift. There were numerous other smaller “gifts” which testified to God’s literal provision for their needs.

Two weeks before the wedding another problem came up which they felt was serious enough for them to cancel the wedding until it was resolved. The shower that was planned was postponed and everything sort of came to a halt. We were afraid to tell our relatives who had already purchased plane tickets and were ready to come. So we waited for a week to see what would happen.

A week later Cherish learned of her Presidential pardon and her ability to leave the country, so the wedding was back on again. So this whole scenario was giving their wedding a sort of on-again-off-again feel to it. I met several people who asked in a surprised tone, “You mean the wedding is on again?” So this helps to explain a little why “the thing was done suddenly”.

The wedding day itself was an exercise in flexibility. Our daughter had to spend the day before the wedding in the Capitol city, which is two hours away, so she could pick up her official “freedom” documents. They could care less that she was getting married the next day. She didn’t get home until the wee hours of the morning on the big day.

After spending a few early morning hours preparing the wedding site with friends, she, along with my wife and mother, went to get their hair done and fancy makeup put on. They couldn’t find the salon for a while, so it added to other last minute problems to put the wedding two hours later than when it was scheduled.

This is a funny thing. All the North Americans arrived on time and were checking their watches at five after. The Dominicans showed up late and enjoyed casual conversation until it started. I asked several Dominicans what was normal at a wedding in their country. All of them agreed … they never start on time, and they come to see the bride, not necessarily to show up for the wedding on time. So, get this … Cherish was having a normal wedding in this country!

I’m not sure I’ve ever been part of a wedding without a rehearsal … until this one. I guess it is part of the culture to just wing it. Oh, it worked out alright, I suppose, but it kept me guessing during the whole service what was coming next. For example, when I walked my daughter up to the front with her on my arm I stopped and waited for the pastor to say, “Who gives this woman to marry this man?”

The anxious groom kept trying to come toward me to grab her and I kept motioning him back. Just a bit awkward! It probably looked like I was changing my mind about giving my daughter away to this stranger from Peru. I finally realized that the pastor wasn’t going to say anything so I finally gave in and released her.


The entire wedding was performed in Spanish. So I kept turning to the teenage son of the groom’s sister who was sitting behind me to ask, “Are they married yet?” He finally said, “They aren’t married until the kiss!” And kiss they did, and at that moment I knew my daughter was gone. She will be living in his home country Peru and we will have to add another column to our traveling budget if we want to see her. Sniff!


As a surprise our daughter wrote and sang a love song for her new husband. This was a special treat for us as well since we had not heard her sing in public for several years.

She also borrowed an idea from her mom - the unity candle. She purchased two small candles and had one large candle made to be lit from the two smaller ones to symbolize two lives becoming one.

When the time came for that part of the ceremony right after her song, three or four men surrounded the candles while one of them held a huge round photographer’s flash reflector. The weather up to this time was beautiful and sunny all day even though it had rained the night before. As the afternoon wore on the wind was picking up and we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. We were on a high hill overlooking the city and could see the storm approaching.

The people surrounding the candles was an effort to block the wind, but no one else could see what was happening. Fortunately their efforts were unsuccessful so with a flare of Dominican spontaneity they moved everything under the shelter that was behind us. Although it was still windy in the open shelter it provided enough protection to keep the candles lit.

This was the time where the bride and groom individually expressed their gratitude to different people and praised God for the events in their lives. Even though I knew it, this was a good reminder to me that God loves and provides for us even though we don’t make perfect decisions, and the wedding was beautiful even in spite of the bumps of disorganization.

The unity candle must have been an unfamiliar custom to many that attended the wedding. When the large one was finally lit during the small wind storm they were battling, the bride and groom each blew out the individual candles as they were supposed to. Then the groom’s youngest nephew who was standing nearby leaned over and gave a big blow at the big candle as if to help the bride and groom who had obviously forgotten to blow it out. I could hear all the North Americans including myself audibly suck in their breath as if to say, “Oh, no!” He was grabbed by a couple of bystanders and the flame flickered to life again. Isn’t this a great picture of what happens in a marriage through the years as the winds of life try to blow out the flame of marriage?

For the next two hours people ate a simple catered lunch and engaged in reception-type conversation while the photographer took the family pictures.








The wedding ended gradually and unceremoniously like a wind-up clock at the end of the day. One by one the people left until only a handful of us stayed to throw bird seed at the pickup as it rolled out of sight with an exhausted bride crumpled in the front seat.

We now have a daughter married to a Peruvian and a son married to a girl from Japan. Does anyone know of a cute AMERICAN girl we can introduce to my remaining single son? Maybe we can have another wedding and do it suddenly also, because now I know that God will prepare our hearts and we can rejoice.