First there was the rising sun pouring through the stained glass windows of the church up in town where worshipers had gathered for an Easter sunrise service.
Then the songs of a meadowlark and robin outside our open window as Jonathan and I prayed together for each of our children and their respective churches as well as the churches of our fellow missionaries, and our own.
A woodpecker drummed as well, along with our crazy guinea hens that out-cackle them all! Which reminds me of a man Mrs. Ambrose told us about at dinner today, who had a speech impediment here in America speaking English. He ended up going as a missionary to India and people wondered how on earth he could possibly be effective there with his speech impediment. To their amazement, God gave him the gift of languages, and while there, he learned to speak fluently in several Indian dialects! What an amazing God we serve and what a miracle! The same God Who created each bird or hen with its own respective voice can give a yielded soul the gift of languages!
While our goats munched their Easter brunch on the greening hill, Hannah made omelets for our breakfast and Jonathan helped me with washing dishes and mashing potatoes to put in a crockpot.
We had decor to take for the front of the church, creations of Danny, and food for the meal.
This Easter season I ended up too busy (or too tired) to come up with anything creative to eat for Easter season, but my sister Dorcas sent me a picture of her little creation!
Sunday School teaching and craft items had to be remembered, church bulletins we printed yesterday, the hyacinth and tulips (since Jonathan is allergic to Easter lilies) and Danny's wood-burned "He Is Risen" creations for decor, and taking mashed potatoes, veggie platter and bread, etc. Crystal has been sick so we had to kick in for her, except for music which she practiced with Hannah.
After unloading all the paraphernalia at church, I noticed our pastor, with it already being past eleven o'clock, about to carry the communion set downstairs in his shaking hand to try to prepare. I got Danny to come help me, and for the first time in his life he poured grape juice into communion cups! I missed out on the communion because I was telling the resurrection story downstairs to three precious children who came with a Lakota grandma. I got so weak at one point, I thought I might have to turn it over to Hannah, but I got through it, and Hannah watched and helped. It can be so fun--especially when bright-eyed children like the ones today enjoy the story and craft so much.
"It was a wonderful Resurrection Day!" a visiting church guest exclaimed after the service and meal today. That made all the work worth it. I had made bread and rolls yesterday, enough to share, and when I was so worn out by afternoon that I wasn't sure I could handle going to call on this grandma, Jonathan offered to drop the bread there.
And today she came to church! She said that bread was so good! She and the children take plates home piled with leftovers from Sunday lunch. People are all precious, and God starts working one person at a time.
"I would call my missionary work 'friendship evangelism,'" Ward French texted me last night when I was discussing details about the book I'm writing of his and Naomi's stories.
"Others give out tracts and I respect them doing that," Ward said, but he focused on building friendships.
We could go door to door till we are blue in the face, and not get anyone to come, but if we focus on just one or two families and create friendships one at a time, that is sometimes more effectual.
Hannah sang a special song this morning, after she and Crystal played "Were You There?" as a piano duet.
And Resurrection Day is still not over yet. My heart was pounding so hard I couldn't rest well, so I came out to write, and so here you have some of what I wrote on this beautiful Easter day. Maybe tomorrow there will be more!
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