Resurrection eggs and egg hunts

In Portugal there is no Easter bunny or egg hunts. There is a lot of chocolate and a special Easter cake that has a whole boiled egg in the center of it. Besides the cake, there aren't really any special celebrations. People go to mass that Sunday and have lunch with their families afterwards--but that's it.

So a bunch of candy and easter eggs provides the perfect opportunity to share the gospel and get to know people. We hosted an Easter party in our neighborhood park. We prayed that it would go well and that people would come (we really only know 1 other child so we didn't really know how it would go). It was fantastic! We had 10 Portuguese kids come besides our teammates and their kids' friends. Plus, 12 adults came (in addition to us, our teammates and their Portuguese friends)...totaling 16 kids and 18 adults. We played bean bag toss, made bunnies out of paper plates, had lots of food, a big Easter egg hunt, and then to cap it off Jonathan used the resurrection eggs to share the Easter story. We had goody bags and all of the kids, chocolate crosses for the adults, and free Bibles for those who wanted them. A big thanks to B's family and Pine Grove church for providing all of the goodies and money to throw this party and to Mrs. Phyllis for the ressurection eggs!

B.'s teacher asked her to do a presentation in Portuguese telling the Easter story and why it's important. Of course, you can't do this without sharing the gospel story. She started with creation and talked about it and the fall. She then talked about the birth of Jesus, his life and Easter. She then used the resurrection eggs to tell the entire Easter story. She went on to share that this was important because by choosing to follow Jesus we can have redemption and that he will one day bring restoration. She ended her talk with a short youtube video using clips of Jesus from various films. Several of her classmates asked where they could find the movie. They said they wanted to learn more about Jesus. She wrote down the Web site for the Jesus film and many copied down the address; one even pulled it up on his ipad immediately. Many of B's classmates do not know anything about Jesus or the Bible--they've never heard any of this before--so pray they do check out the film in their languages and continue to ask questions.

We also got to help our teammates out with an Easter event they threw for their friends and contacts. We were so busy at our event, that Eliana completely missed out on the egghunt. This time, while we were helping, we had a little more time to relax and enjoy the party with Eliana. We put a few empty eggs on her blanket and let her find them while the bigger kids were doing their hunt. She loved it!