LCMS World Mission Blog

“As I drove to church on Easter morning, I saw no one dressed in their finest. I saw no bunnies, chicks, pastels, nothing that reminded me of the season. Everyone was off to work like it was a normal day. I wanted to cry. Once we got to church, I felt a little better. We sang a familiar hymn as one of the guys played his trumpet, slight reminiscences of Trinity Lutheran back home. We had lilies on our empty wooden cross, the little girls of the congregation had on poufy white and pink dresses, and ‘He is risen indeed!’ echoed through the small hotel room where we were gathered.

“But, he best thing about Easter came the following Saturday. My co-worker Mel and I invited all of our first-year students to meet us at the park across the street from the school to dye eggs and to tell them about how and why we celebrate Easter. To prepare, Mel and I boiled 160 eggs, made bottles and bottles of dye, and managed to drag everything to school with us that morning. We have eight first-year classes between the two of us, so we asked that half of them come in the morning and the second half to come that afternoon. We ended up with 36 students in the morning. It wasn’t quite the 80 people we had anticipated, but it was the weekend and they were off of school, so I don’t blame them. Imagine 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds dyeing eggs for the first time. They went nuts with the colors, markers, and stickers. It was a lot of fun. Those 36 students heard the story of that Sunday morning 2,000 years ago for perhaps the first time. We asked them to think about the similarities between an egg and a tomb. There seems to be no life, but on that Sunday, life burst forth! There is life again where there was no life. He conquered death so that we might have life. What a wonderful message to share.

“We had a crisis with the afternoon group—the remaining 80 eggs left in the fridge at school were stolen! But in the end it all worked out. We ended up boiling 80 more eggs and taking the afternoons of classes off that week to dye eggs. Another 80 heard the message of Easter hope. What an amazing time to be in Southeast Asia!

“Please keep those students in your thoughts. They are the future leaders. They will be used to bring about change and developments in the years to come. Ask that the message shared would burn in their hearts just like it did in the hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus over 2,000 years ago on that blessed Easter morning. Let us continue to celebrate Easter all year long and to remember His sacrifice.”