John and Jane wanted to get married in Berlin, where I am planting numbers of churches. Georgia, my wife, had told them at a party that I perform wonderful wedding ceremonies. So they approached me and asked if I would marry them.
I heard the Spirit of God speak clearly to me – “Allow them to get closer to me!” so I agreed to marry them.
The wedding lasted three full days! The first day was a visit to an opera house where the bride was performing. Unfortunately she was performing along with her fiancé and the bass singer – all three of them were naked on stage!
I was shocked. I told Georgia that I would not throw pearls before swine. She corrected me, “What did you hear the Lord say?”
On the day of the wedding things went fairly smoothly. The naked bass singer showed up wearing clothes (fortunately!) and sang Psalm 23. As I stood up to preach to over 100 of their friends, all of whom had been raised under East German socialism where there was very little awareness of God, I sensed the presence of the Lord and presented the Gospel from Psalm 23. What I never expected happened. The majority of the people were touched by what they heard, especially the couple. Many were moved to tears. They came up to me afterwards and expressed that how they understood the Gospel for the first time.
Six weeks later Jane called me. Her mother had just passed away. She asked if I would do the funeral. When I told her that I was not in the country but would be back in a month, they postponed the funeral until I returned. The Gospel is slowly making its way into this former socialist country.