The highlight of every church calendar each year is Easter. The culmination of God's great rescue plan for the world. The defeat of sin and death through Christ's death and resurrection. In Albania it is no different! Last year we celebrated with the greater body of Albanian evangelical/protestant churches in a march and celebration in a public square in Tirana. This year, we were able to celebrate with our local village church family as well as our community.
Easter, of course, is not as joyous without reflecting on what took place on Good Friday, or, as they call it here, Black Friday. I've grown to really appreciate Good Friday services with our village church family. There is space for solemn reflection, there is the experience of joint communion, but there is also the understanding that we will celebrate together in just a few days.
Pastor Genti intentionally pushed the cross in the forefront, a symbolic gesture. The theme of his message was that Christ loved us until the end. He had it within his power to avoid the pain and humiliation of crucifixion, but he was obedient to death, even death on a cross because of his great love for us.
Sunday dawned with questionable weather -- was it going to rain? Would the wind die down? Would the power return?
Below Endri and Arjan start up the grill to cook a massive amount of hot dogs!
Preparing 102 plates of food for lunch!
The menu included: chips, cabbage salad, byrek me presh (pie with leeks) and hasude (a gelatinous dessert with raisins, cinnamon and walnuts).
Shpresa serves up the byrek
Thankfully the sky cleared up so we could serve the food outside! It was stifling indoors!
We had egg coloring for the kids, which was a real hit!
About twenty of our friends from Metalle joined us. Of course, whenever there is a gathering, it's always an occasion for Albanian dancing.
I'm still working on my dance steps...and have a long way to go. :-)
All in all, it was a great day! He is risen indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment