Holy Week & Easter

Katrina and some of her classmates before their spring program.

They are all dressed up for a Moroccan dance they performed. Later they did the French part of the program which was rather interesting. They took turns reading off of a power point all about former or current French colonies. Picture a room full of Moroccans, all formerly under the French flag themselves, some of whose parents had fought the French for independence . . . sitting through a long presentation about the glories of the French colonies! Later the teacher complained to a friend that several of the parents didn't even speak to her after the program - wonder why . . . One father said he would have walked out had his daughter not been reading. It seemed a bit like rubbing salt into an old wound, although this is not at all what the teacher intended. She wanted everyone to come away thinking what marvelous readers their children are!

Yasmine, our neighbor - all decked out for the program

Easter family picture

Thursday night, we had a Passover meal. Friday we had a tenebrae (sp?) service where, as each passage was read, a candle was extinguished. I had to read the "Crucify Him!" part which was very difficult. When the service was done, everything was completely dark and we went home in silence. Later we watched "Miracle Maker" about the life of Jesus through his death then stopped it. Needless to say, we all went to bed depressed!

Sunday we got up for a small sunrise service on the balcony of the church. It was more of a mist-rise, but we got the idea! Then everyone came down to our house for breakfast. We had our main service a few hours later and it was full of joy, sunshine, trumpet (thanks to Gerald) and singing. The college students then hid eggs for the kids and got a kick out of watching the kids hunt! For the potluck, I made two strawberry pies, rolls and fresh strawberry jelly. Three guesses as to what is in season! Yes, strawberries are currently 6 lbs for $3.00! Oh - and we watched the end of "Miracle Maker!"

It is interesting to celebrate this season here because -

* Lent - Ramadan was most likely patterned after lent - a time of fasting and repentance - but it is a rather touchy thing to bring this up!

* Passover - You can imagine that a Jewish holiday is not celebrated in a Muslim country.

* Good Friday - Muslims do not believe Jesus died. They do not believe God would ever allow a 'prophet' to suffer so much. They believe Barabas died in the place of Jesus and that Satan made his face to look like Jesus. Then they believe that Jesus was taken up to heaven much like Elijah.

Muslims are shocked to find out we believe that Jesus died - that someone who is our king is also willing to be our servant. Inconceivable. One friend I had who had lived in the USA for 7 years had never heard this from her American friends. Last year a student of our friend, Kevin, wrote something like, "You will be so happy and relieved to find out that it was not Jesus who died on the cross!"

* Easter - Of course, if Muslims do not believe that Jesus died, there is no need for a resurrection!

You can imagine we have had a lot of interesting conversations during this season.