O! What a day!

And does God provide! Our entire day has been a celebration of his provision. The arrival of the Easter weekend and the chance to ponder on Jesus’s life, death and resurrection has been special. After breakfast this morning Dieter and I spent some time reading an account of Jesus’s betrayal, trial and crucifixion with the children. I’m deeply moved and stirred when we do. We also reminded each other of the many times Jesus’s love and gift of grace is mentioned in various verses in the Bible and we were each able to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to Jesus for the sacrifice He made on our behalf.

I can’t help but be reminded of how this time is celebrated in Cyprus. As Holy Week draws to a close, the church bell would only have rung once today – just as it is when a funeral is conducted in a Greek Orthodox church. The solemn heaviness felt almost tangible to me last year. Boys would be out scouring the neighbourhood for anything wooden or flammable and are making HUGE bonfires in preparation for tomorrow night when they burn them, topped some resemblance of a human being (like a scarecrow, or even a stuffed pet!) to symbolise a burning of Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. This will all take place after a midnight mass tomorrow night, followed by early morning soup and the breaking of the Fast of Lent. The aroma of meat being braaied by the tons will fill every neighbourhood and village as the celebrations continue.

Things in South Africa celebrations are much more reserved. Many shops were open today, even if just for half of the day, but some of the bigger supermarkets were open till about 6pm. Most people seemed to just continue with life as normal. Other than the Easter eggs which have been on sale for weeks now and the guy dressed up as a Bunny at one of the petrol stations, one would be forgiven for missing the event completely! Shjoe!

This afternoon I met with another homeschooling Mom and her 4 daughters. They too have done a stint abroad (also for 10 years!) and have returned to SA, having only been in George for a year and a half. I met her on a Yahoo homeschooling Group Sheila introduced me to, and was really happy to meet up with someone else who homeschooled (especially since the vast majority of feedback we’ve had has been negative). We chatted so naturally and it wasn’t hard to relax, be myself and enjoying spending time with them. At one point in our chatting we moved into their ‘school room’ where they have 4 double-sided bookshelves with lots of books on them. I didn’t have any expectations at all and was totally amazed to find out they also use (and love!) Sonlight and are using Singapore Maths. She called me over to her collection to show me she has multiple cores of Sonlight! I tried really hard, but I just couldn’t hold back the tears. I think we’re doing really well using resources we’ve found at the local library, but now we do have access to the awesome books Sonlight includes in its curriculum and that the library can’t provide for us. God’s provision just bowls me over! Time and time again!

Oh, wow! What a day!