Christ is Risen!

He is risen indeed! And that fact has been duly celebrated here by me, along with some of my friends!

I was awake before the sun (and even before Jackie!) this morning to join the expedition up this mountain - THE mountain here. I've wanted to climb it for SO long, but it's never been safe to do so (one or two landmines left over from the last war). Now the UN has now declared it land-mine free and safe to hike around (though I was still pretty careful to follow the beaten track up the hill!), so we decided to go up it for an Easter sunrise service.

At about 6:30 am, 12 of us set off up the mountain.It was quite the scramble up the mountain, and there were a few moments when I wished I was as nimble as some of the goats that we saw up there, but anyways, after only about 30 minutes of climbing we all made it to the top of the mountain. Good thing there was quite a lot of cloud cover, so we didn't actually miss the sun rise :) It was such a beautiful view from up there - you could look out over the whole town. Of course, you could look the other direction and see the road that goes off into the boonies, too!At the top, we had a wonderful time of prayer and worship to celebrate the new life that we have in Christ. Kendrah had even brought her guitar up to the top! It was a wonderful opportunity to look out over the town, and the countryside and to pray over it. Once again, God gave me a feeling of compassion for the people in this town. There are so many challenges that people face here - and if only they knew Christ, I mean, really knew Him, they could somehow find some peace in the midst of all the struggles. So we prayed and we asked God to work in this country and to build a strong church which will start making a difference in the lives of the people here. Somehow, when you're sitting on top of a mountain, overlooking the people that you're praying for, it makes it seem like God hears it better :)

Of course, once we were done our Easter celebration, we broke out the flasks (um, that's the British word for "Thermos") and enjoyed some biscuits (oh, that's another British word for "Cookies") and enjoyed some nice fresh coffee and a snack! We didn't linger for TOO long on top of the mountain (keep in mind it was 30C when we started our hike at 6:30am!), and were back down at our cars by 9:30. But it was a wonderful way to mark this Easter. The picture above is Jackie, Kristina (from Kenya), Megesha (from Ethiopia) and me, with Lori (from the States) keeping watch over the city from the rock above us.

The rest of the afternoon was spent nice and quietly. I wrote some in my journal, listened to some good music whilst dozing on my day bed (though I woke up in a puddle of sweat from that nap - yuck), and getting ready for our Easter celebration this evening. This is how Zane spent the whole of his Easter Sunday:I looked surprisingly similar to Zane in this pose, as I was spread eagle trying to stay cool during my afternoon nap, too.

This evening, Kendrah and I had put together some songs and readings for our usual Sunday evening fellowship group. Following the fellowship group, we had a special Easter potluck. It was so nice - Megesha's wife even brought shiro and injera and flasks of real Ethiopian coffee! Yum yum!

What a blessing it is to have friends here to celebrate Easter with! I had some good times with them today, reflecting on Christ's love for us, and celebrating the amazing gift of new life that comes when we are crucified with Christ... because if we die with him, we will also live with him!