Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter and vacation

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

I hope you had a truly blessed Easter and took the time to remember all that Good Friday and Easter mean. On Friday Abraham, Six, Ken, and I went to Huejotzingo at three p.m. to present the true meaning of Good Friday to the kids. We hung curtains over the entrance to the back room, and Abraham went back there. Another man who had come with us represented the high priest, and he was the only one who could enter the 'Holy of Holies' to communicate with Abraham. After this introduction, Abraham came out, lit a candle to symbolize the life of Christ, and briefly told the story of the events leading up to Jesus' death. Usually, when Abraham is telling a Bible story, the kids are fairly chatty and restless, but this time they listened absolutely attentively. After this, Abraham explained to the children that Good Friday is his birthday, spiritually speaking, and told them that they could talk to any one of the adults if they too wanted to have new life. Four of the children did approach us and pray to accept Jesus into their hearts. Please pray that they grow, and that their parents also accept the Good News.

Saturday night I spent at the Lechugas' house, because Dios es Amor had a sunrise service on Easter, and buses don't run that early. We were supposed to get up at 4:30 to leave at 5, but someone's alarm didn't go off, so we woke up with ten minutes to get ready before the pastor and his wife arrived to pick us up. About half the regular congregation showed up for the pre-dawn service, and we enjoyed a time of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Following the service, we ate a pot-luck breakfast together, and then some people stayed to watch the movie Facing the Giants. Those of us going to Huejotzingo saw about half of it before leaving.






Once at Huejotzingo, Abraham and I went out inviting the families like we normally do. Once the kids had gathered, I sneaked back outside to hide twelve eggs with symbols of the Easter story inside them. The kids sang some songs with Abraham and then searched high and low for the eggs. Once back inside, those who had found an egg opened them in numerical order and explained what was inside and what it meant. If they didn't know the significance, Abraham told them. We sang a few more times, shared a snack, and then left for home.








Back at my home, Florina had invited several people for a special Easter lunch. We ate good food and shared lots of fellowship, but I was more than ready for bed by 11. It had been a very long day.

Starting today, it's vacation time from school, but there is plenty to keep me busy. Wedding planning continues at a great pace. More and more details keep surfacing, but we've also completed a few things. For example, today Abraham and I finally planned the actual ceremony. We also went into the registro civil and the office of immigration this morning and will be returning there tomorrow to, Lord willing, finish all the paperwork and set the date for the civil ceremony.

After completing our visits to the offices today - and they are not close to each other - we took the one hour bus ride to Abraham's neighborhood so that we could go to a clinic. I needed a mole removed, since a few people had told me that it should be removed and analyzed. Please pray that it turns out to have no suspicious cells, because if it does, the doctor will have to remove all my moles, and there are quite a few.