Easter Sunday Services - April 15th, 2012

Easter was celebrated today, April 15th, here in Russia. We are grateful for every one who was in attendance for Easter Sunday services. Three of our faithful adults were in attendance in the adult services. We invited others on Saturday but we were a bit reluctant of having many people in our home since David came down with an infection and the very bad Russian flu this past Friday evening. He had almost no voice by Sunday morning and was still running a fever. We didn't want him to spread his germs too far so I was a bit relieved for him that it was our few familiar faces in the adult services. The devil always seems to work the hardest right before special services or meetings! 

In the children's service we had a GREAT DAY! I was very encouraged that after a LONG winter we are seeing children return to Sunday school. We even had a first-time visitor today brought by a girl who has only been attending Sunday school for the last three weeks! We ran out of chairs!

A wonderful friend was so kind to send us an Easter package which arrived on Friday. We were excited for some Easter basket goodies for our family and candy for the Sunday school kids.

She also included in the package, a set of Resurrection Easter Eggs which help you tell the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection visually. The kids LOVED these eggs and were so excited to open up each one and read about how their piece of the story was significant.

The kids each holding up their Resurrection Egg.

When we went out on Saturday visitation, we left the Sunday school flyers blank and asked the children to draw a picture depicting why we celebrate Easter. The adults were the judges for our contest.

Timothy, our son, won for the best meaning.

I LOVED the picture above and thought it was the prettiest! The judges also agreed and awarded the artist with the prettiest picture award as well! 

A highlight of the day was tie-dyed cupcakes made with Jello powder to color the cake batter. The kids were amazed at how I made them different colors!

Some of us really enjoyed the cupcakes!

The kids who were present in Sunday school last week were supposed to finish their crafts this week. However, with so many children present it would have been a bit chaotic so they all decided to finish them next week. This also allowed our kids and myself to be in our places for the adult fellowship time after their services were over.

Alexander and Galina were also celebrating 20 years since they met today!

 We enjoyed a great lunch together with all sorts of goodies.

Galina "naturally" decorated some eggs.

Here is a link to show you how to color Easter eggs using this method.

We also enjoyed tortilla roll-ups and sandwiches;

"Blinchiki" made by Galina (the best "blinchik" maker ever!) and cream cheese balls rolled in imitation crab meat;

(A few cupcakes were left over from the children's service for the adults!)

and pretzel rolls (made by the American)!

A few of the children were so sweet to give us gifts for Easter.

I just loved this handmade gift from one of the newest teen girls!

 It was a great day and we were so grateful for each and every person present in the services. David made it through the whole morning but was definitely ready for a rest afterwards!

Every year it is such a blessing for us to have the privilege to teach more and more Russians about the importance of Christ's resurrection. If you could see the faces this morning as the children understood from Scripture exactly what Christ did for us through His death, burial, and resurrection! Please pray for the seed that was planted to take root, and that they would ask Christ to come into their hearts.