3162 Edition
October 1-7, 2012
Church Ministry News
Homeless folks invited to Christian couple’s wedding banquet
Reported by Simon Lin
Written by Lydia Ma
One Christian couple in Taipei City recently used an unconventional way to encourage the homeless. Huang Wei-hsiung and You Wen-yu decided to invite very few family and friends and as many as 100 homeless folks from Wanhua and Sanchong districts to their wedding banquet. Their dream was made possible with the collaboration of Ren-An Foundation for the Homeless.
You Wen-yu, a member of Taipei Holiness Church and the bride, said that homeless people were often forgotten and marginalized in society. For this reason, she would rather forgo glamorous wedding portraits and an expensive wedding and use the money toward encouraging homeless people and sharing the love of Jesus with them.
You Wen-yu said that she got the idea of inviting homeless people to her wedding banquet from an article about a Christian couple in California who rented a bus to pick up homeless people on their wedding day so that these folks could attend their wedding banquet. As result of this invitation, many homeless people were encouraged and some subsequently stopped wandering in the streets and found employment and were saved from a life of poverty. When You Wen-yu saw this story, she was inspired to hold a wedding banquet filled with homeless people as her guests. As soon as she shared her thoughts with her then fiancé, Huang Wei-hsiung, he readily agreed and gave his support.
The couple soon contacted Ren-Ai Foundation and reserved 15 tables at a famous restaurant in Wanhua district on September 22, 2012. You Wen-yu said that her goal was not merely to give homeless people a good meal, but rather to offer them comfort and love and a sense of being cared by family. She hoped that this gesture would also help them find healing and deliverance in Christ. For this reason, her church invited a renowned Australian pastor, Rev. Shiloh Haigh, to share the Gospel during the banquet. All of her friends were seated with these homeless people and they conversed and sang hymns together.
One 73-year-old homeless man surnamed Lee said that he was surprised and overjoyed when he received the wedding invitation. At first, he could not believe that someone would invite homeless folks to their wedding banquet without asking for a red envelope. Furthermore, the guests were invited to a prize draw and some went home at the end of the day with useful items such as sleeping bags, backpacks, suitcases, etc. Mr. Lee said he changed into the best clothes he had to attend this banquet.
Chiu Li-mei, a homeless woman from Sanchong District, said it had been a long time since she had attended a wedding banquet and she was “moved to tears”. Another homeless man who was deaf and mute received Christ and was baptized on that day. The restaurant’s owner was so touched by what she saw that she decided to give a rebate to the couple. In the end, the cost of 15 tables, with 10 dishes each, came to less than NT$50,000.
As the couple celebrated with their well-wishers, they kissed, knowing that their wedding would forever be a special event and memory of their lives. They also hoped that their banquet would inspire future couples to help homeless people.
