So I?m definitely a family guy. I had never imagined being away from family for close to a year. Here I am, thousands of miles away. Surprisingly, as much as I would love to be with my family or have them here, the Lord has given me much comfort being away. However, as Easter was rolling around it had me thinking about them more than I have over the past 4 months. It would be the first major holiday that I haven’t been with my family.
The Lord knew that would be sort of a down time for me so he put me in a place that felt so much like home. As I mentioned in my last blog, we are here in Bulgaria with the Chadwicks. They have been such a blessing opening up their home to us, cooking home cooked meals, and having us be apart of their Easter celebration.
We began by having Good Friday worship service. This was a time of reflection and communion. Then on Saturday, we joined in on a Bulgarian Orthodox Christian midnight tradition. Hundreds gathered around the Cathedral with candles lit. They ended by shouting, “He is Risen!” in Old Bulgarian. My awesomely intelligent teammate Chelsea wrote a beautiful blog about this night. I encourage you to read it by clicking here.
Easter morning I woke with my family on my mind. I wasn?t going to be there to watch my baby sis wake up to her Easter basket and model her Easter dress at church that morning. I wasn’t going to enjoy Easter dinner at my grandparents, watch my sisters hunt eggs, and crash for a nap afterwards.
Yes, I missed out on all of that this year, but I was about to be super blessed. My whole team had some part in serving in the Easter service. Church was packed out and extra chairs had to be brought in. I was able to teach the kids Sunday school class about Jesus? death and resurrection with the help of my teammate, Nicole.
Afterwards, the Chadwicks were hosting an Easter dinner for us and a missionary family here from Georgia. We all gathered and filled our plates up? twice. My heart felt so close to home. The Lord had blessed me with family here in Bulgaria.
Something I realized through all of the services and time to just reflect is that we sometimes tend to lose our focus on Easter. Yes, the Easter bunny, candy, and eggs are fun and the new church cloths are cool? But it shouldn’t out weigh the reason that day is celebrated.
I don’t have to sit here and preach about the meaning of Easter, and I’m not about to condemn our fun traditions. I just wanted to mention how this year is different for me. Easter was something greater for me. It was a beautiful time to really sit back and reflect on why we celebrate it in the first place and the blessings I have received because of it.
