The Mongoliers: Easter Celebrations

Well, I realize it's been a while since Easter, but we thought you would still like to hear about how we celebrated Easter here in Mongolia this year. :) I started out the morning by making these mini muffins to bring to gathering. I made 72 and was going to make more but we ran out of time. I grabbed some cookies that I had just made as well and it was just enough for everyone to have one. :)

Here we are at gathering. The colored words up front say "Jesus Christ again just alive!" (hard translation) in Mongolian.

After the regular service portion was over we had a time of special music and presentations. These boys got up and did a choreographed dance to some music. (The girl in the gray stripes is my language tutor!) We also had a lady share a poem and the youth group did a skit that was very moving about heaven and hell.

Easter Praises!

They also had all the children go up front and they got Easter gifts. Ezra was sleeping through that part. :)

Oh, now he's awake! After the service we had a little snack together...cookies, apples, muffins, and candy.

These ladies had on their best dells. :) Such sweeties!

I love this picture of the boys looking at Ezra. It's an international baby picture! We have America, Mongolia (middle 2) and Korea (R)! The two in the middle are twins the same age as Ezra! He's a big boy!

Here is Ezra enjoying his Easter Gift!

Later that evening we enjoyed a picnic by the river with some friends! These photos are courtesy of our teammate Pam. :)

I made the rest of my muffins and brought them along. They were a bit hit!

Here's the gang at the river! This is one of our favorite places to go now. It's just south of our place and it's so quiet and peaceful. We've been there twice now, but wish we lived closer so we could go more often. We are actually thinking about moving closer since it's also closer to Matt's new job next year!

To The Countryside....

And a few days after Easter, we went to the countryside to celebrate Easter together with our teammates. This is a place called Terelj. It's beautiful! So fresh and just starting to turn green.

Here's our friend Corrie capturing the view with her camera.

And here is our sheep. I couldn't bear to name him.

He gave his life for our meal. It made Jesus' sacrifice for us very real as we celebrated Easter together. We partook in the traditional Mongolian meal of Hor Hok. They kill a sheep and put hot stones inside him to cook the meat and also put vegetables inside to cook together. Matt and others watched the process, but I couldn't watch.