Thank you to everyone who has prayed for rain this
week we have had a bit of showers everyday! We are even starting to see sneak peeks
of winter coming (not really sure if that is a good thing). It is getting colder at night and we are seeing
the weather change for sure. I even got my winter clothes out of my suitcase
and into my closet. Today it has been rainy all day so far and the sun does not
appear to be anywhere around.
The sky has looked like this a lot lately
Easter was really strange for me. I was more
homesick last weekend than I have been the whole time here. Not a homesick for
people but for the way that we do things for Easter in America. I think I would
call it church sick. I missed going to good Friday service and Verizon
amphitheater with my grandparents, going to Saturday night at Refuge HB, and
getting up for sunrise and spending time with the Lord and then Celebrating our
Risen King with Roots. I missed responding to He is Risen, with He is Risen
indeed. I missed doing communion and remembering His death and resurrection. I
missed the excitement that the churches that I was a part of made Easter! It
was just strange for me.
Our church put on a seminar with Dr. Arnold
Fruchtenbaum. We had 3 sessions on Saturday and 2 sessions on Sunday. The Seminars
were great and really informative but it did not feel like Easter to me.
Friday was just a normal day no church service nothing it was quite odd for me! One thing really cool that our family did was plant a fig tree. Henri is an amazing leader for this family and we all went out to plant this tree together. After we put it in the ground Henri talked about how he wanted this to be significant with our relationship with the Lord. We each went around and thanked the Lord for the blessings He has given us and prayed for what we wanted the Lord to do next in our lives. We then prayed that we would be like the tree with our roots secure in the Lord and that we would grow much fruit! It was an amazing time with the Lord and asking Him to grow us and prune us when necessary. I am so blessed to be a part of this family!
Planting the fig tree
Saturday my New Zealand family and
I went to the beach to meet some of their friends. It was a beautiful day and
such a nice time of relaxing and just soaking in God’s creation.
The kids jumped of a little ledge in the cliff (I didn't have my suit on so I didn't jump, although it wasn't very high)
It was really crazy rock climb over to the jumping spot. Here is Amanda jumping a cliff of her own! :)
Since everyone loves my dead animal pictures here is a dead fish that we found.
and a Dead opossum
This is how everyone gets their boat to the beach (by tractor)
We sat out watching the beach all day! It was beautiful and funny to watch everyone drive/walk by and wave like a parade :)
Sunday, because I was feeling weird
about Easter, I got up for Sunrise and read the gospels account of the Crucifixion
and Resurrection. I wanted to be able to take the time to spend with the Lord
and remember and thank Him for what He has done and is doing for us even if I
couldn’t do it with the church body. I was so glad that I took the time to do
that and once again blown away by everything the Lord sacrificed for us! To
save a wretch like me!
Ali McPeak sent me some awesome pictures from Roots Easter Service where my parents went! I was so blessed to receive the pictures and get a little taste of Roots!
I made my friends daughter Kinley a little outfit before I left so that Candis could always remember me and think of me!
Isn't she sooooooo... Cute!!
Both of them were freaking out and had to take them out of their mouths
Awesome .. I love reading your posts :-) It IS weird with the lack of services at Easter .. I was kinda surprised actually that a lot of the churches took a break at Easter - it's only one of the most important 'holidays' for the church and a lot of people in the community will only go to church for Easter and Christmas?? Odd. (we had church) :-) Exciting for you to see your parents - and YES that little girl is SO cute! :-)
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