How Blogging Changed Our Easter Celebration

The kounouz are beginning to feel jealous of blogging, which means I probably need to cut back a bit when they have to call me away form the computer to do things for them!

But, they are certainly enjoying the benefits, as well. I showed them all the Easter greetings on email, and Facebook (thanks again, Pheras!) from blogging friends. Best of all, we went to Al 3atel and MommaBean’s for the first BBQ of the year, and a fantastic Easter egg hunt! That Mommabean is an egg-hider ‘rare shickle’, very creative and tough-to-find hiding places she discovered, she did! (the kounouz told me: “I hope she is a better egg-hider than you are Mom”. When it proved true, that didn’t forget to remind me!) My husband enjoyed getting to know El 3atel as they manned the grill, Little Kinz, Butterbean and Joo-joo Bean played. Spikekid, HistoryBuff and Project Boy played hide-n-seek with El 3’s nephew of the same age (with little boy Bean – whoops forgot his on-line persona!). Of course, MB and I talked. And talked some more.

That night at church, I was SO excited when the worship team had chosen “In Christ Alone”!!! Didn’t have to beg or bribe, either, like I did to get them to learn it a few years back – yes, I am not below offering baked goods as incentives to learn my favorite worship songs! Even more fun was having a blog reader of mine singing with the team…”T”, thanks for the gift of your voice! Another blog reader is Little Kinz’s Sunday School teacher, who came up with great craft for the little ones (thanks, “N”!). Speaking of Sunday School I am also a teacher, and so enjoyed my little charges this week. Crafts are what keep this group of busy boys listening, and we made clothes-pin people dolls to re-enact the ‘crowd’ …the same crowd that welcomed Jesus as a ‘political’ Redeemer on Palm Sunday, rejected him as accused of the Jews on Friday, and observed his crucifixion by the Romans from afar. And from this group, came the the first church.

Endeavoring to live up to this on-line reputation I have created of being a great baker, I found an easy recipe for cinnamon rolls (I will post it later) for sunrise service Easter morning. Like all the churchladies, I was up til midnight baking for the masses coming the next morning.

So, with four hours sleep, I roused the family and we met in the dark with dozens of other cars and caravan-ed to a hill outside Amman. Who was there already, but Desertmom blogger, directing us to a beautiful spot to lay out our blankets and gather. The birds of the field had already begun their morning song of praise, and a nearby herd of sheep had a group of new lambs celebrated God’s gift of a new day with their feisty play. It was cold and cloudy, but as the teaching elder reminded us, God has a history of meeting His people in the clouds. We spent time praying, especially for this adopted land of ours. I was thrilled again to sing “In Christ Alone” with my church family, from fifteen countries, and as we finished, the sun started to break through over Baqaa first, and slowly broke through the clouds as we sat to ‘break bread’ and break fast together.

As the children played and enjoyed the discovery of bugs and flowers (and the big boys had a pine-cone fight), we adults lounged and ate and talked. Desertmom’s recent posts about spring flowers made me much more aware of the beauty around us. A concurrent theme in our conversations (whether in English, Arabic, French, German, Spanish or Korean) was what a blessing it is to live in Jordan. Indeed.

I thank God for this gift, and how getting to know bloggers has enhanced my affection for this land. One more thing…I have several more friends to make Easter visits with now! Tomorrow, Little Kinz and I will visit Salam and Raya.

***Update: link to desertmom’s blog to photos!