EASTER ::

In our country, we have been teaching about Easter this past week in our classes.  It’s been a great week of dyeing eggs, having Easter egg hunts and also teaching about the real Easter story.  Other than our house being an egg boiling factory this week and having permanently dyed fingers from mixing dye on a daily basis, we are so thankful and blessed for this opportunity.

In some of our classes, our students acted out different parts of the Easter story; from Judas betraying Jesus, to Jesus being on the cross between two criminals, to the angel telling people outside the tomb that Jesus has risen from the dead.  It was sometimes a chore to boil the eggs in preparation for each day.  Our Monday classes have the most students, so we had to prepare many eggs on Sunday.  Unfortunately last Sunday we ran out of propane which is what our stove is powered by (and hot showers as well) and we didn’t have propane for about 24 hours.  We ended up getting the brilliant idea to boil the eggs in the rice cooker which is electric – we were thankful to come up with a manageable alternative for boiling.  Unfortunately we couldn’t shower in the rice cooker and had to have cold showers instead!  Anyway, it’s been a real blessing for us to be able to share with our students the real reason we celebrate Easter as almost all of them have never heard the Easter story.

We were asked by our university to put on an Easter performance with some of our Canadian friends in this city.  This was the first time the school has approached us regarding an Easter performance and we were a bit cautious planning the program.  However, the school organizer specified that they wanted to hear about Easter and even after we told them that Easter was about Jesus – they still gave us the go ahead!  On the night of the performance first, one of our team played the Easter bunny hiding plastic eggs on stage while another team member played one of the “children” who looked for the eggs, found them and then opened them and threw out the candy that was inside to the crowd.  We then sang a song a cappella called Easter Time which is to the tune of “Jingle Bells”.  The words to the song are:

Easter time, Easter time,

We have so much to do.

Time for bunnies, time for eggs,

But time for Jesus too.

Oh, Easter time, Easter time,

Jesus showed his love, He died for us and rose again.

He’s with the Lord above!

Since the students all know the tune of Jingle Bells they also joined in and sang the song with us.  We also taught this song in our classes, so we hope they learned the words and let them sink deep into their hearts.

Back to the performance - after the Easter song, a team member, along with a translator, explained what Easter was really all about and what people in Canada do at Easter time.  To conclude the night we performed a mime that depicted Jesus’ healing powers to a blind person, a crippled person, a weeping woman.  At the end of the play, Jesus is crucified and rises again and then is worshiped by the people He just healed – this is performed along with music and was very powerful.

by “Kaleb and Karen” R.A.N Missionaries S.E Asia