The day before the wedding

... I just returned from the bathroom where I managed to throw up again. Practically it's nothing, but the pills that were supposed to settle my stomach. :(  Yuck. Darren was holding back my hair with one hand; the other held the IV bag that was still connected to my right hand...

The hospital director (who was also my "Dad" to walk me down the isle), came in to suggest we postpone the wedding. To the others I just nodded and didn't bother to explain, but to Gerrit I felt like I need to tell him the truth - well, at least what I thought was the truth:

God knew that I was still not excited about this whole wedding thing (mind you, I said 'wedding' and not 'marriage'!) and me being a perfectionist when it comes to organizing things... let's just say God in His infinite wisdom knew that things are NOT going well for my liking. He also knew that I needed a distraction, otherwise I would get first upset, then angry and finally I would cancel the whole thing. You may be smiling now, but let me assure you I was VERY close to call the whole nightmare (a.k.a. wedding ceremony) off several times.

So, how to distract Reka? Easy. Knock her off her feet for a day. Oh, and BTW, let her know of the plan so she can truly rest and trust that all will be fine the next day.

And guess what? That's exactly what happened! Deep down I knew that this is God's plan for me. Sure, I would have chosen a different, less unpleasant way of taking me out for a day, but in general, I must say I 100% agree with God's plan. :)

I explained that to Gerrit who seemed to accept this reasoning and agreed to proceed. 2 hours later the IV was finished and I indeed felt much better. I KNOW many people were praying for me all over the ship and also around the world. Let me just say here I was so grateful to everybody who prayed or came to offer help or just to check on me.

I was told that Don Stevens, the Founder of Mercy Ships was on a business trip with our Managing Director on that Friday and even they prayed for me! How cool is that???? :)

You saw the wedding photos... I looked fine! :)

I hope you believe now that God IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL THAT WE ASK OR THINK (Ephesians 3:20).


And the real moral of the story?
I was quite sick during the honeymoon. :( Yeah, that's too bad. I know, I felt horrible. But I learnt 2 valuable lessons:

1. Darren is an excellent nurse and caring husband! :)))

2. God DOES answer prayers in a specific way. Everybody prayed that I would be healed for the wedding day - and that's exactly what happened. Nobody said anything about being healed for the honeymoon! :) We just assumed that they go together. Well, they don't!