EASTER 2010

The week before Easter Sunday was the week we were on vacation. I was waiting on pictures from Cathy to tell you about our Good Friday and I got them yesterday. Mike and the boys went deep sea fishing on Good Friday so the "girls" were going to get in a little shopping. We knew that this day was heavily celebrated by the Mexican Catholics and we knew there was going to be a parade but we thought the parade had already happened before we arrived in town. What's neat (and totally a God thing) was that it was sooooo crowded in town but there was an open parking place at a restaurant there and you could park there if you ate there. So we decided to go ahead and eat lunch and we chose to be out on the terrace, just to watch the atmosphere. Little did we know what a blessing God had in store for us! As we were waiting for our food, you could see this Catholic church from our table which was about a block away........

Out of this church came Roman soldiers, then Jesus, who had been arrested.....

They turned here and walked him down a couple of blocks, out of our sight.....his followers were behind him every step of the way

Then after we were finishing our food, they came on down the other side of the town, reenacting that sad Good Friday day that changed our lives forever.....

Look for "Jesus", carrying his cross.....

They turned at the corner of where we were sitting....below you can see the 2 other prisoners

Then "Jesus" walks right past us and they were whipping him as he walked

Then there were about 300 Mexicans following the procession to "Golgotha" where they reenacted the cruxifiction. We did not get to see that part but this part was extremely touching....for them to walk it out in front of us gave me a perspective that I had never been a part of. What were the people who saw Jesus walking by, carrying his cross thinking? Did they really understand what was going on? Did they believe he was the Son of God? Or did the accusations by the religious rulers influence them into thinking that he was a false prophet? Did they join in the procession out of curiousity to see what happened? Or did they fall to their knees, repulsed at what they had witnessed, crying out to God to stop this? .....or did they stand in awe at fulfillment of the Scriptures?

It was such a blessing to see, and looking back, God just paved the way for us to experience this by using the parking space at that particular restaurant where we could see it all even though we had not planned to! Thank you GOD! Ada has been there 5 Easters and has never come down to see the parade and didn't know what it really was. The parade really gave me an awesome preparation for what Easter weekend was all about. Good Friday night, we attended Don and Ada's church there for another service honoring the sacrifice our Lord gave us.

The Saturday before easter we traveled all the way home because we couldn't miss Easter Sunday!! We couldn't dye eggs until then and Haven was the only one interested......

Please excuse the lack of clothes....this is Haven at home 98% of the time so if you ever drop by, she'll be in her underwear, even in the dead of winter!

We always get a family shot on Easter and because we had just arrived back from Mexico.....

Yes, the sombraro made the Easter picture! (We did have some made without it if you are wondering!)

We had a wonderful Easter attendence and PRAISE GOD, 6 people prayed to receive Christ!! Please pray for these 6 people, that they would attend a church somewhere and become true disciples for God.

WOW! What a special Easter this was!! Hope your's was touching also!