Happy Easter! 復活節快樂!
We celebrated Easter Sunday at New Life Bilingual Church, a Southern Baptist church plant here in Kaohsiung. It’s the church that my sisters and I have been attending this year. We love the pastor and the people. The preaching is great, the music is encouraging, and the fellowship is rich. This year, Easter was extra-special for my sisters and me because our mom is here visiting for two weeks, so we were together for Easter Sunday.
Since we knew Mom was coming, we asked Pastor Mike if we could sing a song for special music; Mom is an excellent pianist, and Sara and I love to sing with her. Of course, since we’ve lived in Taiwan, it’s not nearly as often that we get to sing together. Dad, we recorded the song (entitled “O Calvary’s Lamb”) especially for you since you couldn’t be here with us. (We miss you, Dad).
There was also an international group from a local university visiting our church. One girl was from Malaysia, and the rest of the young men and women were from various countries in Africa. They shared an a capella song. Their music was a true blessing, and it added to the cultural diversity of our already bilingual resurrection celebration. I’m thankful that Jesus died and rose again for all people in all cultures.
After church, we went to Sweet Home restaurant for a delicious, albeit untraditional, family Easter dinner. Sweet and sour pork, beef with onion, chicken with cashews…the meal was perfect even if it wasn’t baked ham and a sweet potato casserole. After a quick walk through the night market on our way back to the car, we were set for the evening and we headed home.
This definitely was not a typical Easter for us (although when living overseas, “typical” becomes difficult to define), but it was a blessing to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection in a new and multicultural way. He is risen!
Peace Along the Journey 
I love the details. Thanks Christel. And especially love that your mom is there with you. That makes the day even more special. You girls have amazing voices! This last photo – the one where Jane is looking on as the girls hold the babies, should be in the orphanage promo piece. Very photojournalism-ish. Nice. And a shout out to Lawrence. We’ve known him since college. Thanks for recording the journey. Blessings.
We have just finished a wonderful morning in celebration of our risen Savior. It was so good to come home and see these photos, read this post and listen to you guys sing. Last night when I attended the first of our 5 weekend services I was overwhelmed with joy as I considered over 1 billion followers of Christ around the world celebrating our risen Savior. I knew that around the time we were celebrating on Saturday evening in Syracuse, you guys were celebrating in Taiwan. This thought, our oneness in Christ, bridged the gap of the miles and I was there worshipping in Spirit with you guys. Then to receive the post today and to see, in video, what I had already seen in my heart was such a joy. Thank you for sharing the video. I love you guys and am so thrilled Christ has captured your hearts with His love.
Yay! I’m so glad yall recorded and shared the song. I missed it since Eden had a rough morning, and we arrived to church quite late. Beautiful voices!! Do you mind if we post it (and the one of the “international choir” on New Life’s blog/FB page?
Thanks for the compliments. Absolutely! Post away. :)