Easter drama

Easter was a bit different for us this year. No special events. No new Easter outfits. The kids didn't get Easter baskets, or any sort of Easter candy. Maybe it was a bit too drab. On the other hand, we don't want our children to get caught up with all the "extras" of Easter that really have nothing to do with the real meaning. There is no awakening of spring. We've been in spring/summer since November. :-) It just gets hotter from here on out. So, while away from all the bunnies and chicks, we had fun and did an Easter skit on Good Friday. The children had a blast and hopefully will remember it for a long time.

Here Easter week is called "Holy week". All of the schools are closed and many have vacation from jobs the whole week. Everyone flocks to the beaches. There is no special Easter candy or such as we have in the States. They do have an Easter dessert that they make out of kidney beans called "sweet beans". It is tasty, but not necessarily our favorite cuisine. The city is pretty much shut down and there is little traffic on the weekend. Definitely different than Easter in the States.

They whipped him.

Mary cries.


It doesn't look like she's very sad here.

Jonathan watches the whole thing.

They tied him.

Then they put a crown of "thorns" on his head. Those thorns look pretty soft to me. :-)

Pounding the nails

Jesus on the cross

"It is finished"

They pierced his side. Mary cries.

Jonathan can't take any more.

The story will be continued..............

Finally - Holiness Convention pictures!

We were privileged to be invited to and participate in the annual Holiness Convention hosted by Evangelistic Faith Missions. There was a wonderful sense of God's presence each night and many received spiritual help. Our church sent 15 to 20 people every night and on Saturday night they packed out 2 vehicles with 28 people! (including our family) In this picture, most of the people on the left side are our church people. On the third row is Blenski (Pastor Euddy's brother), his wife and 2 children. We were so happy they could attend several of the nights. It is a joy to see this young family get their feet grounded in the Lord.


Hermano Douglas leading the service

Hermano Euddy also helped to lead the service. In case you can read the words behind.....The services were held in a beautiful Nazarene church. We were spoiled to enjoy air-conditioning each night.

Luis Miranda from Honduras was the evangelist. I mistakenly said he was from Guatemala in a previous post. He did an excellent job delivering the Word.

The oldest member of our group, 75, singing a special. Dios le bendiga, Hermana Chucha. [God bless you, Sister Chucha]

Hermana Dionelly (Euddy's wife) singing a special

Praying with seekers at the altar

On Friday night after altar service, the Lord settled down on us in a special way.

Euddy presents Luis with a gift from our church. Our church so appreciated his ministry and received much spiritual help.

Euddy with his brother, Blenski, who was able to make it for 3 nights of the convention.

Some may remember a few years ago when 3 girls were forbidden by their father to return to our church. Here are the 3 girls. They all were there for one night of the convention. The middle one is now our pastor's wife. The one on the left, Cindy, still comes to our church for S.S. Leidy, on the right, attends her father's church some.

It was so good to have Bro. Don Mobley visiting us. He was a great babysitter while we participated in the service. In this picture Jonathan had his fill of convention.

We enjoyed having David & Marilyn Middleton, Don and Luis in our home for a meal during convention.

Enjoying fellowship with Don & Luis Miranda.

Pictured from left to right: Pastor Euddy, Doug, Luis Miranda, Lewis Wheeler (visiting Middleton's on his spring break from AWC)

Misc. pictures

Barefoot brothers

We saw this cloud with a silver lining on our way to the first night of holiness convention.

I thought this was a neat view of the sun in the early evening.

Holiness Convention

We are in the middle of Holiness Convention. Services will close tomorrow night. We have been sensing a wonderful work of the Holy Spirit. We are physically very tired, but thrilled with what God is doing among us spiritually. Pictures coming soon.......I hope!

Holiness Convention next week

A virus hit our family last week and put the blogger nearly out of commission. We are up and functioning again, yet with not as much spunk as before.

Next week we will be participating in the annual Holiness Convention hosted by Evangelistic Faith Missions. Luis Miranda from Guatemala will be the evangelist. We are looking forward to great services! You are welcome to join us in prayer that God will move among us. He already has been moving so beautifully here. We desire to see what else He has in store!

Another video about Agape's plane

This video is an interview of the pilots that survived the plane wreck. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "more pictures" to see the damage done to the plane. Also included in the page is an email that we sent to Agape.

http://www.agapeflights.com/caravan.asp

Agape is not out of commission! They work hard each week to find a way to get our mail and packages in. Sometimes they borrow a plane, sometimes another carrier will bring it in for them. They have been using a variety of ways until they get another plane. Their dedication in helping us has meant so much! So keep the mail and packages coming - they'll get here one way or another! :-)

A peek into our community

Living in this community has been like a dream come true. We fell in love with the community and the house in an instant, but our biggest holdback was the question of "Where would the children play?" It hasn't been a problem. They have spent most of their time in the street. The park just beside the community also provides a lovely place to relax as well.

Since living here we have realized how much stress it placed on us to live in the mission house. Once we enter our "home", we can leave all the stress and care of the mission behind. We have left the noise, the dust, the violence, and the feeling of "being on duty" behind. We can take off our shoes, relax, and be a family. Even entering the community gives a sense of security and relaxation.

Here is the guard to our community. There is normally a gate across here and he has to see who you are, push a button that electronically opens the gate, and you drive in. We just found out the reason this community is guarded with military men is because the colonel lives here. They are guarding him. If he were to move away, we would be left with regular street men to guard it. We feel a little safer with the military men that carry big guns and keep a close eye on the place.


This is our classy trash truck. :-) A man rides or pushes this cart like contraption each morning and picks up the trash bags waiting outside.

This is the walkway to the park that is located beside the community. The park provides a place for the children to get out their energy. Here Doug and the children are playing with some other American boys that live here, too.

The community is just on the other side of the park. Some houses even have gates that open up directly into the park. This house even made its own sidewalk and hedge entering the park.