~HE IS RISEN...HE IS RISEN INDEED!~

Dear Lil' Elijah has been sick all weekend, and struggling to breathe.  =(  So, I was wondering how I could give him some Easter treats...but didn't want to leave him out.  Since he was so sick last night he slept on the couch in our room.   I got up early to put the goody baskets together, and he was WIDE AWAKE...and came down to "HELP ME".  It's not often that my kids help me put together their Easter baskets, but this morning I let him.  He's been asking for days how soon Easter would come!  So this morning he pulled back the curtain and looked outside and told me that he hoped "Easter" would come soon.  =D
I told him that Easter HAD COME.  That we celebrate Easter...because JESUS ROSE FROM THE GRAVE!  =)
~Here is helping me put together their goodie baskets.~

~My Moma bought a few things of candy for the kids, the WOW sent some candy which I saved for their baskets (Thank you again, Ladies), and our dear friends the Kennedys surprised us with lots of yummy goodies too!
(Mary received her little Duck for her birthday but I needed something to help make her side of the basket not look so EMPTY...for I wasn't about to give tons of candy to her, knowing her little body couldn't handle much. =)~

 ~Here's the goodies that the Kennedys sent to us with a friend who was coming to Bogota.  A sweet card, Skyline chili packets, Sloppy Joe mix, Ranch dressing mix, taco mix, Koolaid, a big bag of Sweet-tarts and Sprees, fun gum, fun M&Ms, and Skittles!  THANK YOU, Kennedys!~

 ~Jesus rising from the dead is something to celebrate!  What a Savior we have!~

~Heading to church.  Kimberly made yummy cocoa crinkle cookies to pass out at church.  It was pretty chilly so the 3 younger kids had to have coats.~

~4 of our children once we got to church.~

~Mary's sweet dress is a gift from a friend in the Chinese church in Argentina and Gram made her bloomers.~

~The Lord helped Bro. Jimmy as he preached.~

~Kimberly and Sarah taught Sunday school.  They taught on Jesus resurrection.~

~Here they were singing The Wiggle worm song.  They shared some of their big bag of Sweet tarts and Sprees with the children in their class.~

~Bro. Jimmy and his family singing a neat special song.~

~Phillip talking before having communion.~

~Natalie, Kimberly and I playing Amazing Grace.~

~A pic from the front of the church.~

~Joanna and her Heather Sofia, Me and my Mary, Judy and her Stephanie.~

~Kimberly and Sarah made up this craft.  Each child got to make a tomb.  Kimberly and Sarah pre-stamped the outside of the tomb with brown and green to make it look a hill.  It's hard to tell but in this picture there are 2 tombs.  The one on your left has the stone and Jesus standing beside it.  The tomb on the right is the side of the tomb with a tree on it.  Their craft was really cute and everyone really liked it.~

~Lil' Mary.~

~Our family.  (Not sure what Noah is doing with his hands...but I think he must have thought that the camera was done taking our picture. =)~

~My sweetheart and I
(It was windy while we were taking these pics.  I thought it was going to rain, but it stayed sunny all day.  YEA!  I think that Easter should be bright and SUNNY.  =)~

~Mary and her basket (she was asleep when the other kids saw their baskets in the morning.)  She shared a basket with Kimberly.  I gave her some candy but not tons.  But, she is making up for her lack of candy by going around a finding the other kids' candy laying around and snitching some. =)~

~Our table setting.  I had fun using yellow rick rack to tie the napkin and silverware.  We used plastic eggs with a little tag (the end tucked inside) for our place cards.~

~Our fun daisy, golden rod, and limes centerpiece...with a touch of yellow rick rack too.~

~The Kennedys sent our kids a RARE treat...some packs of Koolaid.  So we enjoyed some today at dinner.~

~Us right before eating Easter dinner.  I just made a simple meal...~

then Mary and I took a LONG DELIGHTFUL nap.  =)

~After we got up we ate my coconut cake...with little "nests" and jelly beans on top.~

~Then after dessert we did "Resurrection Eggs."  Each egg had a paper saying something that had to do with Jesus' crucifixion.  We would pass the basket around and each one of us would take an egg out and whatever their paper said we would talk about what that represented.  The nail, the tomb, the cross, the vinegar, etc.
(We tasted the vinegar...and it made our hearts SAD...knowing that that is what was offered to Jesus to drink ...when He was SO THIRSTY).~

We had a beautiful Resurrection Lord's day and hope that you and your family did the same!
LIFE IS WORTH THE LIVING...JUST BECAUSE HE LIVES!

~More pics of our days with Daddy and Moma~

THANK YOU for praying for Daddy and Moma...their trip went as smoothly as can be expected with how WEARY they were.  They arrived home safely last night!!  Praise the Lord!  Traveling mercies and smooth trips are things I DO NOT take for granted...after some of the scares we have had while traveling.   =)
~We did a lot of sewing while Moma was here.  Fixing some skirts for Kimberly and making new white bloomers for Sarah and Mary.~

~On Saturday, March 31st we made preparations to feed lunch to those who would be studying at the pastoral class on Sunday afternoon.  We cut 80 potatoes, lots of celery and onion to make our BIG pot of soup.  Here's Elijah helping cut celery (notice his SAW there in case he needed to use it on the celery. =) ~

~Daddy cut most of the 80 potatoes for the soup.~

~Here's Kimberly stirring our BIG pot of soup.  It wasn't full, but there was A LOT of soup in it!~

~Sunday morning's service.  The front rug got a bath...and wasn't dry, so we had service sideways this time.  It was a special service.~

~God helped Daddy as he preached and Phillip as he translated.~

~Mary during church...with Kimberly sitting behind her in her new skirt Gram fixed for her.~

~Bro. Alberto and Sis. Alba with Mary.  They are the ones who pastor in Medellin and who sew clothes for a living.~

~Bro. Rigoberto and Sis. Ilce with Mary.  They work in Cartagena.  He's the one who gave Phillip the bag you'll see pictured below.~

~L to R:  Sis. Alba, Bro. Alberto, Sis. Ilce, Bro. Rigoberto, Heather, Phillip, Moma, Daddy, Sis. Farly, and Bro. Jimmy!~

~Moma and I serving our BIG pot of soup.~

~We also served apples and made oatmeal raisin cookies.~

~Sis. Farly (on your right) made the sandwiches for our lunch and provided the drinks!~

~All of us ladies together.~

~Sis. Farly's yummy sandwiches.~

~All of us who ate lunch before the pastoral classes started.  We helped served the lunch and enjoyed eating it, then took the babies, Gram, and Mommy home for a MUCH-NEEDED NAP! =) ~

~Bro. Rigoberto works at a youth detention center and he and his young people made this bag for Phillip.  We thought that the little girl who came with the bag was so CUTE we decided to keep her.  =)~

~Kimberly enjoying a fun moment with Mary.  (Thanks, Brittany, and family for all the fun clothes you shopped for and sent to Kimberly!  She's enjoying them!)~

~Noah's dear friend who lives next door to us and our kids skating.  Poor Elijah is using Sarah's skates she outgrew...but he doesn't mind the pink too much...as long as he can have some skates to use.~

~Moma and I being "twinkies" ("twins"...well, sort of twins. =)~

~The kids at the bakery where we took Gram for breakfast one morning after the men had left for classes.~

~Moma, Kimberly, Mary and I at the bakery.~

~Then that night we had an invite to go to a couple's house who attends our church.  They served us a DELICIOUS meal!~

~They were so HAPPY that Moma ate all of their food and enjoyed it.  (Daddy was too tired to come and he needed the evenings to do even more studying than he had previously done...for the next day's classes.)~

~Noah showing Gramp his new skateboard that he had been SAVING his money to get.  It was on sale because it had a scratch and because the store was going out of business...so he got it for nearly 1/2 PRICE!  Praise the Lord!!~

~Each morning, Moma and I would get up early and serve our men breakfast before they left for the classes.  Here's their breakfast table...before the main course had arrived.~

~Each morning we would serve them fresh fruit or fresh fruit juice.  This morning it was fresh yummy mango! (On the little plate was a jelly filled donut to enjoy with their coffee!)~

I still have more pics to share of Daddy and Moma's time here...that I'll post after Resurrection Lord's day. Phillip has some pics of class on our old camera, so I'll try to post some of those as well. The Lord really helped Daddy as he taught and Phillip as he translated for the pastoral classes. THANK YOU for your prayers!