Easter Morning Surprise

We had a 4 day week-end for Easter. Most of that time was spent either organizing, coaching or playing in the Aiyura Valley Easter Soccer Tournament. (Pictures to come!)

But, we did manage to celebrate Easter a bit and to remember the reason behind the holiday. Easter is a really special time for us since so many things tend to happen around Easter time. Like last year, the raskols here repented and actually turned from their ways. We have experienced a year of peace in the valley which is also reason to celebrate.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. Ben really enjoyed his Easter morning....

Above is a picture of the family Easter basket I made. When I shopped at the store last week, I kept picking up items for the basket but then returning them to the shelf. Every thing in our store is really expensive these days.....and I just couldn't pull myself to waste the money. So we all got a little something, but more importantly, we continued a tradition even all the way over here.

I cut out "Easter Eggs" for Ben to follow.

Here is a picture of one excited little boy:

Following the trail:

Finding the surprise:

Ben got to open all the goodies.

We had a really nice dinner with "Uncle" Carl the night before we celebrated Easter. He brought Ben a cream filled egg (something I could not pull myself to buy for him because of the cost). When Ben opened the egg, he said, "This is what I always wanted!!" Thanks, Uncle Carl!

This Easter, Ben and I also went through his clothes. A little boy here left his clothes at the river when he was bathing and those clothes were stolen. We were asked if we had one pair of pants and one shirt that we could spare. Instead, we went through Ben's clothes and gave him as much as we could spare- pants, shirts, underwear, sweatshirts. What was really cool about this act of kindness was that Ben played a part in it. I think that he actually understood that we were giving his clothes to a little boy that had no clothes. It felt so good to give away what could really help someone else. It makes me wonder why I don't give more. You know? I was challenged by Ben's willingness to part with some of his favorite shirts just so another little boy could go clothed.

Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice. My prayer is that I, too, would live a life of sacrifice.