Easter Weekend

For the first time, my Easter was spent somewhere other than at church celebrating Christ's resurrection with other believers. I missed it. My weekend was a wonderful camping and kayaking trip in the Galilee with the college/career age group from our church as well as a few others. It was interesting how a Western tradition, even though it is a church holiday, is not observed by believers all over the world. The majority of the group were Russians who's Communistic histories kind of dampened any Christian beliefs let alone Christian celebrations. The few Israelis there and the others at our church are more anti-traditionalists and so have not adopted a lot of Western traditional holidays. This was one holiday that I missed a lot more than I thought I would. In its absence, I had a chance to think about how important of a Christian celebration it really is. Even more so than Christmas, Easter celebrates our hope that we have as believers. Our faith rests in the fact that Jesus, as the sinless Son of God and yet fully man, died as our substitute to pay the penalty for our sins against God and to restore our relationship with Him. His victory over death, the curse of sin, proves that his payment was accepted and effective. If it were not true, as the Apostle Paul says, we would be of all men most miserable. But it is true! What better reason do we have to celebrate!

We did have a wonderful time of fellowship together. Andre brought us devotionals on the importance of unity, and we built a campfire and sang on the Western shore of the Galilean Sea. We barbecued, kayaked on the Jordan river with its one rapid, and played frisbee. Because the majority of the people were Russian, the majority of the language that was spoken was Russian. Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of opportunity to practice my listening skills, but at least the guilt of not being able to understand when I was listening was lifted!

The activities were my favorite part. Putting up tents, kayaking, and playing frisbee offered many opportunities to be involved and to interact without needing a lot of words. These are such wonderful people! I look forward to the day when interacting with them at a group, or even an individual level, is not such a challenge. One more thing that makes you long for heaven!