Easter 2013

 

He is Risen!

Although well versed in the Resurrection miracle, Rory wanted Jesus in the tomb for the picture. We decided it was the moment before God raised him from the dead. And those other people, well, his actors are a little early on stage. It was a great visual to keep the Truth in front of us through last week using baked salt dough & a tomato paste can.

 

  

This year we celebrated Easter with three of our churches who gathered for 4 days of services hosted by the Terno branch of CFC at the Bible School. 
It was delightful to see the three churches that joined together this year share parts of the service, taking turns with worship, preaching, & keeping order. One woman was tasked with going around tapping the sleeping youth on the shoulder. Another man & woman documented offerings & attendance. Young boys brought cold water bags & bottles around. Multiple translators were needed for translation into 3 dialects.

A large Sunday School class met under the 2 huge mango trees. Grace, Pas. Samuel's wife, does a wonderful job with the children. They even had their own worship time, the line of them dancing around the driveway followed by the drummers.
So many times in other services here I've been completely distracted by things foreign (still!) to me. The sweat dripping the children's chins, the length of the service, the type of songs sung and even the assortment of clothing that appears at church. Lately, those things have faded from my attention & I feel more focused on participating when I can & holding an internal worship & prayer service of my own when I cannot.

After the service, baby Abenah was the main attraction. Leila was born on a Tuesday, her Twi week name is Abenah. This is how we introduce her to our friends here. They would expect her to have an English name as well but laugh with delight at their new sister (which she is, since she was born in Ghana). Thankfully, Abenah was awake & calm as she was passed from Pas John & Cynthia to many others & then to 11 yr old Jessica to have her little pink arms stroked & her cheeks pinched. I've met Jessica before as she attends the church at Terno. She was so sweetly persistent to holding Leila, fending off the older women so well she got two turns!

As soon as Leila started to squeak from all the rumpus, the nearby women all began to instruct me that the 'this baby is hungry! ' and grab their chest (as if their English wasn't good enough). She had a full belly...but they were guiding me according to their ways. :) In their houses there are no nuks, few toys, few snacks & no schedules. So you breastfeed on demand. At any squeak at all. That reason & also I'm sure they were curious to see if I'd take care of business in front of them. The myth is that white woman are so rich they always buy formula & don't breastfeed. Not this momma. And if they'd have wanted a show, they missed it, as I fed her during the church service.

 

 

 

Pastor Joseph & Lydia and their church family from Asamankese. Their son Desmond is at the far right in yellow plaid.

 

Pastors Joseph, Samuel, John, Isaac, Emmanuel & Jon 

 

We took some group pictures after the service. This is something we enjoy doing for them. It's easy for us, we can even get prints at mall, but something they have little access to. Last time Jon got the prints for free! The guy at the counter saw a movie on Jon's flashdrive he wanted to watch so they 'traded'. Actually, Jon gave him the money anyway but that's how things work here. Always room to barter.

By 2pm we were enjoying a family Easter dinner at our coworkers ,the Bontragers. 5 families from various places in the States, a noisy children's table of 11, & a meal of turkey, mashed potatoes & more, an egg hunt & conversations both hilarious & serious made the classic family dinner.
These friends, they are family!