Our Easter weekend was a whirlwind of activities that I hoped would be celebratory and hospitable. We kicked off the weekend by hosting my conversation circle for dinner on Thursday night. This is a group of students that I've met with over the past school year to help provide support and English speaking opportunities. Several of the students wanted to cook, and I was more than happy with that plan, so we all went to the Pasar together early Thursday morning to get the food needed for the meal. That afternoon, I picked them up and soon our kitchen was a flurry of activity. We had food from Uganda, Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
 |
| Lydia learning to make chapati. |
 |
| Elias enjoying his chapati. |
 |
| Lydia actually did like the chapati, despite what her face says. |
I made a carrot cake to finish off the evening. It was a true celebration of the end of semester two for the students, and the start of the holiday weekend. I could sense their relief as we cooked, ate, and cleaned up together.
 |
| The whole group with the delicious food they prepared. |
 |
| This is a common occurrence for Elias. |
 |
| Mmm, look at that plate of food! Beef, curry, adobo chicken, and chapati! |
 |
| He looks a little guilty because that's his second piece of carrot cake. |
On Good Friday, we went to the pool with friends in the morning, then spent most of the afternoon at our church for the Good Friday service. Since I am coordinating the music at my church, I got to have a hand in choosing songs and instrumentation for the Good Friday and Easter services. It was so fun and such a blessing to hear it all come together, and it was a truly worshipful experience. I even got to sing in a small ensemble, which was a lot of fun. That evening we enjoyed pizza with some friends from church.
 |
| Elias getting ready to pull Lydia's hair. |
Saturday didn't go quite as expected. We are learning that you really have to leave all expectations at the door with kids. I had invited three other families over to our house for an Easter brunch and resurrection roll making party for the kids. They were supposed to come at 10, and at 9, Lydia started saying her tummy hurt. Lydia has been having digestive and tummy issues for most of the time we've been in Indonesia, and we're still trying to figure out why. Our latest hypothesis is that she may be lactose intolerant. We let her eat pizza on Friday night and she LOVES pizza. I think she ate 3 or 4 pieces over the course of the evening. So on Saturday we payed the price. When Lydia isn't feeling well she wants to be held constantly, so one parent pretty much has to sacrifice any hopes of accomplishing anything.
Since Lydia's sickness wasn't contagious we decided to go ahead with our Easter brunch, but it was definitely not exactly as I envisioned. Having the other kids around did help distract her from her discomfort. The adults got to have some conversation in the midst of the chaos of the kids, and the kids had fun together. We made the resurrection rolls and they were so surprised when the marshmallow was missing from the middle. We also decorated Easter cookies.
 |
| Cookie decorating fun. |
Jeff and I escaped on Saturday afternoon to the local salon for a "cream bath" and foot massage while a couple of the ITC students, who Lydia and Elias love, stayed to watch them. (One of the definite benefits of working with college students!). A cream bath is heavenly--basically you get your hair washed and your head massaged, and then your neck, back, and arms massaged for an hour. The shampoo gets washed out and you get massaged again. At the SAME TIME your feet and legs are being massaged, or you can get a pedicure. And all of this for the grand total of $10 per person. So worth it if you can find the time to get away! After a pretty intense semester for Jeff, it was an especially nice treat for him!
On Easter, Lydia was feeling better but still not quite herself. Most of the morning we spent at church, and then in the afternoon we had some college students and one family from church over for Easter dinner. I labored over a cheesecake and I am happy to say that it turned out! One sign of adjusting here: in the beginning I burned everything in the oven. It's a gas oven without a way to set a precise temperature. Now, I can successfully bake without burning. I also discovered where to buy pork, so although we didn't eat ham, we did have some nice pork that I let cook in the slow cooker and it was yummy. I also treated us with some creamy scalloped potatoes. It was definitely not a meal for the lactose intolerant, but I made the excuse that Lydia doesn't like potatoes anyway. One of the Filipino students also made a special gelatin dessert drink.
It was a full weekend, but it was a lot of fun to spend time with some of the students and to get to spend time with our friends and their families. I have been meditating on this verse over Holy Week leading up to Easter and leave you with it:
"If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Rom. 8:31-32 May you rest in God's goodness and love for you!
