How I spent my Easter

Happy Easter everyone!
 I hope it was absolutely fabulous for everyone. Mine was a little strange. Our spring break started on the 15th, so I've been in Kenya for the last week. It was an amazing time of hiking, relaxing, shopping, and just really seeing how beautiful this part of the world is. The mountains continue to take my breath away and Mt. Kilimanjaro is just a gorgeous as all the pictures portray it to be. I'll be posting pictures on my facebook account soon. :)
Therefore, my Easter was spent waking up at 6 am and taking the 8-9 hour African bus trip home. At first I was really disappointed. This was my first Easter in Africa and I really just wanted to celebrate it with the Kenyans or the Tanzanians. However, I would be celebrating it on a bus ride that some could compare to a mild 9 hour roller coaster ride due to the speed and ridiculousness of the driving here by western standards.
Bummer right?
It ended up being such a blessing of a day. Long, but a blessing. About 6 hours of the ride was spent driving through some of those gorgeous mountains in Tanzania and I had my ipod in. I basically spent my Easter morning listening to worship music and being amazed and blown away by His creation. Somehow, on that bus, I was able to really enter into a place of worship. It sometimes felt like everytime we rounded a corner, I had one more beautiful bit of scenery to stare at and marvel at. Our God is the Creator and He is a GOOD one.


Once we got home, the reality set in and it became clear that vacation was OVER. There was internet to be bought. Groceries to be purchased. Laundry to be done. etc. In America all of this could be done within a couple hours. It's a little more challenging here. Therefore, we, as roommates, divided and conquered. I went grocery shopping.
Once I got to the grocery store, I bought what I needed and was about to catch a bajaj home. However, I noticed about 9-11 kids sitting outside next to a garbage can. They were all looking one direction.....towards a tv store where a tv was showing a cartoon through the store window. They were literally all crowded around on the sidewalk, next to the trashcan, watching a cartoon with no sound, in another langugage, but they didn't care. I don't know why, but the sight gripped me. How many American kids would do this? Not many I know. These kids clearly had no where else to be but right there. There wasn't any sign of any parents either.
Then I heard God say a funny thing,"They need popcorn for a movie." I responded with a laugh, "God? Popcorn? Did I hear you right?!?" He insisted. So I went back into the grocery store and bought a huge thing of popcorn. I came outside, sat down with the kids, shared some popcorn, and started watching the cartoon with them. At first they were REALLY confused. Who was this white woman sitting next to a trash can with them eating/ sharing popcorn!? I knew they'd be confused so I just started greeting them and introducing myself. After about 20 minutes, I had 2 kids in my lap and most of popcorn was gone.
In that moment, there was literally no where else I wanted to be than sitting there in front of that window with those children. Their smiles at me made me feel like I could float home and I totally did. I bet my bajaj driver thought I was insane with the big grin I had the whole way home.
Isn't that what we are supposed to do as Christians? Do the weird thing so that  LOVE is shown. Sure they were confused, but by the end of that 30-35 minutes of sitting with them, they knew I cared about them and wanted them to be fed and content. It was REALLY strange for a  WHITE woman to sit with these AFRICAN children next to trash and enjoy herself...but isn't that what Christ did at Easter? Didn't he also come down to the trash  from heaven and enjoy the company of children and love them?
Anyways, it just meant a lot to me. It may not to anyone else.
It may not have been the Easter I was expecting in Tanzania, but it still meant the WORLD to me.

He is Risen!
He is Risen INDEED!