Happy Easter! This is a special Easter. Being away from the familiarity of home and the excitement of celebrating with family, I’ve had some more distance to reflect on what the death and resurrection of Jesus means.
Some of the things that have happened since I last posted anything (oops, it’s been 2 weeks)…
- Girls from an orphanage stayed at the base with us on a purity retreat for a few days and we got to love on them, give them a makeover night, and witness a special event where they received purity rings
- I got 6 stitches in my arm
- One of my teammates got stung by a scorpion
- Another teammate went home to the U.S. early for some health reasons
- We learned about the spirit, soul, and body aspects of health
- Did manual labor and cleaning around the base
- Visited Manuel Antonio, figured out how to use the public transportation, saw monkeys, a sloth, toucans, crabs, etc.
- Babysat for the pastor’s family
- Gave Sammy the base dog a lot of love
- Ran a garage sale fundraiser for the prenatal center at the church, made a lot of change in colones and did a lot of math
- Did nursery at the church
- Cleaned the church
- Worked on the business directory prayer initiative for Ocean’s Edge
- Went ziplining
- Went snorkeling (top 5 coolest things I’ve ever done)
- Did ATL ministry (Ask the Lord… & just go do kingdom bringing stuff, basically)
- Had our weekly small group mentor meetings with women from the church – went hiking and talked about Jesus, went out to a nice restaurant and got to dress up and borrow cute outfits from mentor Stephannie
- Ate a lot of pineapple
- Knocked a papaya out of the tree in our yard, ate that too
- Had a campfire and s’mores
- Sweated, a lot
- Went to our ministry host’s pool (tried not to get stitches wet)
- Got stitches out
- Went to a Good Friday service
- Spent a lot of quality time with my teammates
- Spent a lot of quality time with the Lord
- Began the Daniel fast
- Started counting down the days till I go home in single digits
Why is this a special Easter?
It feels different to me because I feel a lot more gratitude than guilt this year. I’ve always known the importance of Easter but I think that’s previously manifested itself mainly in feelings of conviction that Jesus went through this painful death on my behalf. I’ve felt a little bit bad, like maybe my human inadequacy disqualifies me from receiving the gift of salvation somehow, and that Easter is a kick in the pants to remember, oh yeah, I’m supposed to try to live like Jesus because I owe it to God.
This year I feel the weight of what happened on the cross, but beyond that I just feel overwhelmingly grateful. Duh, everyone is human and that’s why we needed Jesus in the first place. I don’t feel an obligation to strive to live to be like Jesus to feel like then his death and resurrection for me was worthwhile if I work hard enough. I really just feel super loved. And out of gratitude for God’s love for us I want my life to look more like Jesus’.
Today our pastor said something about not just standing at the empty tomb and staring at it, but getting to go and tell about it, to go and do something about it. Going home, I’m excited to get a little bit of a fresh start to be more intentional and have a better perspective about what living out of gratitude for salvation and walking in Jesus’ footsteps looks like.
That’s why I have been fasting. It’s helping me to be more focused and serious about being strong in my decisions about what I want going home to look like. It’s nothing too drastic, there’s a few personal decisions I’ve made that will be tangibly obvious, but overall I want to keep this perspective: living out of a gratitude for love, patience filled with joy, and grace out of compassion. Obviously, that’s something that requires a daily decision to say yes and a daily dependence on the Lord, but it’s something to shoot for. And thank goodness there’s grace. But out of a heart posture that’s secure in my identity in the Lord instead of striving, I think it’s a good goal.
ONE WEEK LEFT (what?!) I’ll be home a week from tomorrow. I’m going to miss the girls I’ve been doing life alongside the past 3 months, and that’s going to be a tough goodbye. Prayers for that, as well as the transition home are much appreciated. Someone really wise told me that God gives us friends for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and I’m trying to keep that good perspective when I get bummed about being states away from them all in one short week. But I’m doing well, super mixed emotions about this semester coming to an end, but I am getting really excited to come home. Thanks for following along all this time. My next, maybe last(?) post will likely be from good old Michigan!
