Easter celebration

We had such a fun gathering to celebrate Christmas, we had hopes to do it again for Easter.

Since January, I have been discipling our previous night guard and a few of his friends through the gospel of Mark. We have been asking the question, Who is Jesus? And letting the Word of God tell us. 

So far we have learned

*he was born of a virgin

*John the Baptist gave testimony to who he is

*he was tempted but lived a life without sin

*he taught us how to pray

*he taught us how to fast

*he healed

*he forgave sin

*he has power over nature

Our previous guard is very outgoing! He knows lots of people in our neighborhood and seems to have a passion for others to hear the gospel. He wanted to invite 5 different groups of young men to come for an Easter gathering. I told him it would be our pleasure. Invite your friends and we would take care of the rest.

We arranged a lady from the discipleship school to cook for us. I met her and learned she doesn't speak French, and someone was going to find a translator. I happened to ask if she spoke Fulf. and she does!  We can talk in Fulf. I share that to say it is nice to have an African language here. She cooked a feast that would have fed 80 people! 

 On the day of the party we rented chairs from our neighbors. The kids love to help bring the chairs and I enjoy seeing them so happy to help. They are always wanting to help open and close our gate (and always wanting to sneak in to swing and play with toys, too). 

We planned to read the story of Jesus praying in the garden, being arrested, crucified, buried, and resurrected. With intention, I told the story to emphasize Jesus' identity. It was Judas one of the 12 who identified Jesus. He remained in the arms of the guards. Jesus said he is the Son of God, and it was such blasphemy the priest tore his robe. Jesus talked to his mother Mary, 2 of her friends, and one of his disciples, John, on the cross. And after his resurrection Jesus showed his disciples the piercings in his hands and feet. 

Muslims believe Jesus was born of a virgin, prformed miracles, ascended to heaven, and will come back again to the earth. But they do not believe Jesus suffered because as God he should not be allowed to suffer. They believe Jesus was not actually on the cross but was substituted by another man. With this knowledge I made sure to tell the story so there was no question to what the God's Word teaches. The men asked questions. They certainly listened to the story. It will take more stories, more teachings, but I thought the message was clear and was well received.

After reading the story we served a meal. Easter fell during Ramadan this year. I wondered if it would be well attended...I thought they may be tired from their fast and the heat. This turned out to be true as fewer than half of who were invited came. But we still had a good turnout of 30-35 men. And many stayed after the meal to watch the Abraham film.

Join me in praying for our neighbors. Pray they will be sensitive to the gospel and seek truth. And pray for our former guard. He professes his faith but he has suddenly become unreliable, and is always demanding money. He was terribly mad that we didn't pay him for this gathering and stormed away very angry. Pray that we can restore peace in our relationship.