Easter Greetings

Today for Easter Sunday, we toddled off to the Anglican Church in town. Everyone else in the city (and from our compound!) toddled there, as well, so it was pretty crowded! And since it was Easter and a communion service, it was pretty long, and therefor pretty hot! It was also quite difficult to understand the sermon, since I didn't quite understand the accented English that the Bishop was using, and the acoustics are never very good in that building. But oh well, it was nice to go through the liturgy, say the prayers and share in the communion. This Easter, the idea of "a new creation - the old has gone, the new has come" is really hitting me.

The whole idea of being a new creation in Christ... I have died with Christ, the old has gone and I'm a new creation. Wow. Amazing. That Christ would make me clean, wipe the slate and make me new. That's pretty big, when you really start to think about it. And that's really what Easter is all about - rising to new life, and the whole idea of chickens being hatched from the eggs to new life, the spring flowers emerging to new life... not that we've had any of that here!

The Easter Hedgehog DID bring Grace an Easter basket full of different colours of nail polish so she can mark all the hedgehogs that she catches and know which ones she has already released back into the wild. The night guard is even getting in on the whole hedgehog hunting business. Each night he collects a few and saves them in a box for her! He's the resident expert on the 'hogs, since he spends every night just wandering around the compound with nothing else to do. I think Grace should figure out how to find some funding for the hedgehog catch and release program. James, the guard, could be the beneficiary of that funding, or at least it will buy him a few cups of tea to keep him awake during the long nights here.

Anyways, after church, we went to the pizza place for our Easter lunch, and also to celebrate Janna's birthday. As usual, the pizza was amazing! We followed the pizza with some haircuts out on the patio/septic tank. And by then, it was time for fellowship! I do like that fellowship that we have, though more and more, it seems like it's people who live on our compound who are coming out for it! But that's ok, it's good to get to know our neighbors. They're really great people, and I really want to get to know them well while they're living on this compound, so that we can continue our relationship whenever they leave this compound... which I pray won't be soon... but that's a story for another day!

Tonight, I just want to continue to think about and ponder the new creation that I am in Christ. And if I'm truly living as a new creation, how do I need to behave?! Food for thought... and right now, my tummy is full of French toast (we found real LOAF bread in the market!!!) and chocolate cake, made with cocoa that someone left here a month or two ago :) I guess living in a guesthouse with constantly rotating guests DOES have some advantages...

Happy Easter. May you be blessed as you celebrate the wonders of the risen Saviour.