Easter Celebration

What a fun time we had at this past Monthly Fun Day Program!  Since Easter is coming (Ethiopian Easter is April 12th) we thought we would have an Easter-themed event.  While preparing for the event, I decided that I wanted to do the “Resurrection Eggs” that are very popular in America.  Problem was, I didn’t have the “Resurrection Eggs” kit so I went online and tried to find out if I could recreate it.  While it is possible to recreate the set, I quickly found out I wasn’t going to be able to recreate it that easily in Ethiopia as most of the items are unavailable here.  I left the internet cafe that day feeling sad that I wouldn’t be able to use this creative and visual teaching tool for the kids.

“But God”

Mussie came home later that SAME day with a box from some of my friends at HPC Church in Anderson, SC.  As we were looking through this huge box, completely overwhelmed by the love shown to us by my home church in SC, guess what was all the way buried in the bottom of the box?  You guessed it-a “Resurrection Eggs” kit!  I was so excited.  Of course, Mussie had no idea why I was so excited as he had never heard of these eggs before.  I love how God brings everything together.  He knew that I really wanted a fun, creative, visual way to explain the celebration of Easter to these children and He provided!

But why was it so important for me to have a fun, creative, visual way, you ask?  Because a lot of the children that come to this program are not Christian-most of them are Ethiopian Orthodox.  Ethiopian Orthodox people celebrate Easter but to them, Jesus is not the Savior-not the way to heaven.  We wanted to be able to stress to these precious children that Jesus and ONLY Jesus is “...the way, the truth, and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through” Jesus!!  (John 14:6)  And through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we are able to have eternal life.

The kids had fun with the “Resurrection Eggs”.  They were interested and impatient to wait to see what was in the next egg!  After the lesson, we split the kids up into groups and had them draw a picture of what Easter looks like to them.  Again, we were pleasantly surprised by some of the beautiful pictures the kids drew.

The "tomb" is empty.  Praise God!

After the kids had lunch, we had fun with Easter eggs.  I know Easter eggs have nothing to do with the true celebration of Easter but it is fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  The eggs were filled with candy that my HPC friends had sent me and some of the eggs had numbered slips of paper in them that the kids could redeem for fun toys that were in that box from the States.

Besufekad picking a prize.

Our beautiful volunteers, Asmara and Zewidtu.

What a great day to celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of our King!