Easter

Svetlana, Nick and the boys and I were at the sunrise service yesterday morning. It was truly wonderful to be out there so early in the morning, although very cold and windy. The Salvation Army Band was set up, and played the accompaniment to a few Easter songs, interspersed with a few readings, then Nick delivered his sermonette. What an incredible message it was. He spoke about the fact that the women had gone to the tomb to clean Jesus’ body – he had had a very crude burial, so his body would have not looked good. The woman were probably not at all looking forward to doing this, but out of love and devotion to Him they wanted to do it properly. They saw the tomb empty, and then saw Jesus. When the disciples came running and saw the empty tomb, they didn’t believe that the women had seen Jesus, and it was only later that evening that He appeared to them. So they actually spent the whole day in confusion, not knowing what had happened to the body. It really just opened up the resurrection to me in a new way, and I think also being outside in the early morning brought it home that much more. Got home, and after a quick breakfast, the boys looked for their eggs which had been hidden downstairs (not outside). They found them all pretty quickly (there weren’t that many of them), and then of course wanted to start eating them. We let them have one big egg. I think, though, that most of the Easter eggs must have melted in the containers on the ship coming over and reformed, because the chocolate just tastes weird and looks old. Quite a pity, but just one of those St Helena things you deal with. Nick had to get going for church, and Svetlana and I spent the morning at home, just reading and relaxing. Later in the afternoon, we were all feeling quite bored (except for Nick who was just feeling tired), so we walked down town to Castle Gardens and spent a bit of time there. The boys ran around and looked at the tiny fish in the pond, and it rained a bit so we sat on a bench under a tree. Then we walked home again. Evening church was excellent. Nick preached on the resurrection body, one of my favourite topics, and I even took notes. He clarified some confusion about our heavenly bodies.

Today was a very quiet day – we thought we would go out somewhere, but only got going after lunch, after spending the morning doing this and that. We took a drive to Sandy Bay and walked around a bit at the beach. There were a couple of people there enjoying the public holiday, and some ex-pats who had really gotten themselves nicely set up with a braai and salads and stuff. Their kids were playing in a little stream which ran into the ocean, building a dam or something with lots of mud. Looked like fun.

Aaron was his usual naughty self today. He ate toothpaste, sugar, and tore leaves off the mango plant – the three things which he constantly gets hidings for. I told him that if he wants to he may brush his teeth, but may not just eat the toothpaste. He thought that was a good idea. Caleb is very excited about his birthday tomorrow. I don’t know quite yet what our plans are, but we’re not really having a party – will be postponed until my folks are here. Tomorrow we have to go to the hospital at 9 am for the surgeon to check her work.

Evidence suggested that a mouse had taken up residence in the pantry again, so I asked Nick to set the trap earlier today. I needed to get some tea from the pantry a bit later, and wondered if the mouse had been caught. I carefully opened the door and peeped in, and saw the mousetrap moving around. The poor mouse had been caught but only on its shoulder, so it was wriggling around and probably in lots of pain. Nick had to retrieve it and on Svetlana’s suggestion, drowned it (seemed much cleaner than clubbing it to death). I was completely disgusted but the boys took it all in with interest. We explained to them that it was better to drown it than to let it suffer in the trap.