Traditions

Right now, I'm reading about the different things that friends and family did for Easter. You know traditions are a funny thing... I for one grew up with tons of traditions for every major (and not so major) holiday. Things like helping my mom be "santa" or the easter bunny, going on treasure hunts for our "big" presents/easter baskets, having a special breakfast the day of, decorations, etc... Right now I'm reading of people going for sunrise services, dying Easter eggs, and the like and it's just so funny how different things are outside of America when it comes to holidays. I'm learning to adjust and basically make my own traditions here in Africa, it's just not something that I enjoy embracing because I honestly am a traditionalist to the core, but life is more than just what we're accustomed to, things change, and honestly those changes a lot of times help you to remember what things are all about.

For us here at Calvary Chapel Jinja, we begin the weekend with our Good Friday service. It's typically in the early evening and we have worship, a special teaching, and then we carry out a plain wooden cross and put it up on the side of the road for everyone to see. While doing that, everyone's following singing a traditional worship song. It's actually really cool because it's quite an intimate and tangible way to set our minds on the "things above" when many during the weekend are thinking of anything but that.



For Easter, we have one service instead of our usual two, which means that it's packed. This year we had (between kids and adults) well over 200 people come as we remembered what Jesus did in conquering the grave. All of us on staff were up bright and early getting everything set up, and at 9ish the service started :) Oh, one thing fun about this year was that power was off until about 15 minutes before service, we have a generator, but still that was nice little hiccup. We had an awesome extended time of worship, and then Steven taught. We then all left the church and picked up flowers and brought them to the cross we brought out on Friday and put them on the cross to show our new life that we have in Christ and the beauty that the cross brings. It's really quite a powerful visual.



Those are our church traditions. As for me personally, this year I tried to do my best at having the breakfast (although it was only blueberry pancakes). But things are so crazy when you work behind the scenes so the morning was chaotic and even during the service you have to work. But it was cool because before all the madness started, I was able to have a sweet quiet time in the end of Hebrews 4 and being reminded that Jesus came and was tempted in every way yet was still sinless and b/c of that we can boldly come before Him and seek him for his mercy and grace. Needless to say that was one way God helped me to kind of "be still". After the service, it was then time for the rounds of social engagements. It was actually a lot like Christmas was this year as friends allowed us to take part in their festivities. We went and had Chinese food, went to a party to celebrate Easter and this couple's baby being dedicated, then we made an appearance at an orphanage that a lot of the youth group kids stay at. From there we took a little breather, then went to the home of one of our staff members and then headed to have calzones at the home of some more friends. Having Chinese, Ugandan, and "Italian" for Easter is not what I would call your "traditional" easter fare, but it wasn't bad.

Now that this weekend is over, I guess in the midst of the lessons that God is teaching me is that as cliche as it may be, it's all about Him and recognizing and remembering and trying to grasp what He did for us. And as for the traditions, I would have to say that it's not necessarily about what you eat or what you do, but who you're with and rejoicing in sweet fellowship...even if it's over sweet and sour chicken instead of ham