A Wedding During COVID-19

By Anthony:

One of our guards, Paul, has talked about his desire to get married for many years. Unfortunately, it takes a long time in Uganda to save up for bride-price, besides the more important concern of finding the right lady you want to marry! We have prayed with him about this for the past six years. Many people simply start living together with another person because it seems impossible to remain faithful while waiting years to save money, and then they pay the bride-price gradually, sometimes completing the bride-price payments and getting officially married after already having five or six children together. Paul and Rachael, however, went about things the right way according to the guidelines of the churches here. Paul's time finally came this year, during the COVID-19 restrictions. Here is Paul and his best man at home where I picked them up for the wedding. 

Paul and Rachael were able to have a simple wedding that was not nearly as expensive as it normally is. The government allows you to have a wedding of 10 people with special government permission during this COVID-19 season. Sara and I couldn't attend the wedding because of the limit of people, but Sara helped with the church decorations, and I helped by driving the bride and groom around town. The police were at the church and made sure the proper protocols were followed including making sure the church had a volunteer to check the temperature of every person going into the church building. Here is Paul getting checked:

And the bride:

The newly married couple:

Unfortunately, Paul had both malaria and typhoid in the week coming up to the wedding, and then also in the week after the wedding. But God gave him the strength to enjoy the festive day!

Sara made the cake that they enjoyed at the reception! We didn't go to the reception either because we wanted to obey the government restrictions. But we had a separate party with Paul and Rachael and the best couple a few weeks later which was very meaningful and gave us a chance to actually talk together about their new marriage. We are very happy for them!