Happy Easter

I realize that for most of you Easter is today, but for us it was yesterday.

Easter has always been a big family celebration for us, so as we prepared for our first holiday overseas (there was my birthday, but that doesn't really count) we were really hoping to spend the day with other people. We were so happy to be invited to Easter with our friends the Russells. We shared a lovely meal and time visiting together.

We began our Easter morning with the traditional family photo before church. There were no new Easter outfits this year, but we tried to dress a little nicer than normal. This is a VERY casual place. Dressing up does not happen often. Yesterday was the first day I wore something besides sandals on my feet.

We followed the photo with a short walk to church. There are two services each week the Tok Pisin service and the English service. Because we want to get familiar with the language, we have been attending the Tok Pisin service. It requires a great deal of concentration and I find that I miss a lot of what is being said, but it's a way to connect with the nationals and communicate to them my desire to get to know their culture. Hopefully, in the process, I will begin to learn more Tok Pisin.

After church we came home and had an Easter egg hunt for Sydney and Calvin. We had another family over on Saturday to dye eggs with us, so we hid those and a dozen plastic eggs which I brought with us. The kids enjoyed that.

After the hunt, we went to our friends house and enjoyed an Easter meal together and spent some time visiting and enjoying the beautiful day.

There is something really peaceful about this place. As I sit here I'm humbled by thoughts of God's incredible love for me. He created such places of beauty that we can enjoy. Most important, though, he sent his son to die for our mistakes. Wow!