EASTER 2009

we started our easter week with a beautiful sun shiny palm sunday. my bible lessons in class that week were a little more in depth. after all... i really want them to learn about all the other stories in the Bible, but if they don't get this week's lessons, they might miss the most important part. God loved us so much... i have been so impressed at how much they have learned this year. i remember the beginning of the year when i would say... "turn to...", they would stumble through the pages until i could get around to help them. most of them did not even know the Bible was separated into the new and old testament. now when i ask them to look up something, they are shouting out before i even ask... "that is in the..."! i think they are really starting to get it. it is a wonderful thing to see all these little children reading God's word!!!

i wanted to share with them some of the exciting things we do in america on easter. most of them had never dyed eggs. sooooo.... after a long search i was able to find white eggs (they are not common here in korea and expensive), food coloring, and vinegar and we dyed eggs. they LOVED it!!! when i told them about egg hunts they all just looked at me with a puzzled look. i finally explained it like hide and seek only you hide the eggs not yourself. i was kind of sad we could not get plastic eggs so that we could have had a real easter egg hunt.

we had a beautiful easter!!! koreans do not typically celebrate easter. of course the churches had services but nothing like the big services we have back home. the little church we have been attending, every nation church of korea, had a combined service that week. they generally have a korean service in the morning and an english speaking service in the afternoon. idk what we are gonna do when we come home and have to start getting up early again to get to church on time... we are kind of spoiled. :) easter combined service was at noon with lunch afterward.

this is the combined korean and english praise teams... notice the words on the screen below...

we also attended another church on easter sunday. onnurri church is one of the larger english speaking ministries here in korea. they have two locations in seoul as well as churches in other cities. the third grade teacher at gcs is one of the children's pastors. she invited all the upper elementary students to attend a special easter service at four that afternoon so we were able to do both. she said they usually have about 100 kids (grades 3 thru 6) in her group but that week they had about 130. it was a great upbeat service for the kids. she did a wonderful job with the message, the sunday school teachers did a drama...

and there was special violin duet by a brother sister team

notice how they sit on the floor in this big open room... no chairs and you have to take off your shoes before you enter the room.

after all the great services we had dinner at our house with grace and december. i made homemade rolls and a ham, not mom's but it was ok... :)

it was a FANTASTIC day!!! one of the many blessing we have had this year is the time we get to spend together. really enjoying each other without all the worries of the crazy schedules. i am so thankful for this time, especially since i know the time i have with lauren is ticking quickly by. if the speed of this year is any indication, she will be gone to college in the blink of an eye. and then morgan won't be far behind.