Easter Sunday

Well, Easter has come and gone again for another year. But we had a wonderful Easter Sunday here in Papua New Guinea. Our Lord can be worshipped and His resurrection praised anywhere, even half way around the world in the Highlands of PNG. I will say that our Easter Sunday started a wee bit early for me as Susan's alarm went off around 5:30 (yes AM). But that was the time to rise if we wanted to be on time for the Sunrise service that had been planned. We had a joyful time as we sang the Easter hymns, read scripture, some gave testimonies and Dr. Jim played his trumpet out over the hills. Makes me wonder what people across the valley were thinking who may have heard the trumpet sound. We had a wonderful time together as a mission family worshipping our Savior and celebrating His triumph over the grave! Thanks to God, it is the reason we have the hope of salvation and the forgiveness of sins. If you have never asked the Lord Jesus into your life you can't truly experience the fullness of Easter. But the great thing about what Jesus did for us on the cross and in His resurrection from the grave, is that we can ask Him into our hearts at anytime, even today, right now, and He will hear and He will save, right here and right now!

Our Easter Sunday didn't stop there, no sirree, we still had a full morning ahead. After the Sunrise Service we had about an hour before we needed to head out to the tiny little village of Kume (Koo May) where Pastor Dixon has a preaching point, just past Tuning (for those of you who followed along with Mom and Dad's adventures while they were here). It is just a tiny church and is only a year and a half old, actually here, it is considered a preaching point because it is not yet organized. Pastor Dixon had asked if I would come and Autim Tok (preach) at Kume when I Preached at Tuning in January. For this adventure we took along 4 single ladies and a volunteer couple and Micheal the security guard for the compound because he knew where we were going and we did not! So all 11 of us started off on our adventure. It took us about 50 minutes to get there and it was back in country a little bit, but half the fun is getting there!

We finally came to an Aid Station and was told to park because it was just a little ways up the road. Now the first lesson is when a National tells you it is only a little ways ahead you know that it is at least twice that far. But I am happy to say it really was just a very short ways ahead and then we headed up a steep bank. When we got to the top the church was right there. (You can see the inside of the church 2 pictures up, above is the outside with the trail coming up to the left of the church, and to the left is Pastor Dixon in the foreground and John who attends the church in the background) We were a little early and since the pastor had not yet arrived we all stood around and visited with the people that had already shown up for service. It wasn't too long and Pastor Dixon came and within a few minutes we moved into the church to start the service.

We moved in and as is typical with a PNG church service, we sang lots and there was a time for testimonies and scripture verses and the offering (every good Nazarene Church has one) and specials. Susan had a special, she played "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name" It was very nice, she used her flute and piccolo that she had received as a Christmas gift this past Christmas. Soon it was my turn to be apart of the morning service.

I felt impressed to shared about Peter and his part in the Easter story. There are times when I feel I can identify with Peter a good bit. I wanted to show how a man who had been with Jesus for around 3 years, could still deny Jesus and yet have the Lord reinstate Peter and as we see in Acts 4:8 "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit ..." This is an exciting story. We all know that not one of us is perfect and we will have our moments along the way where we must ask the Lord's forgiveness. But because of Easter we have the assurance that He is always willing to forgive and reinstate any of us who are willing to ask, so that we too, like Peter, can be "... filled with the Holy Spirit ..." The Lord told Peter ahead of time that he would deny Him and when they were in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to them, after He found them asleep, "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Mat 26:41 Three times Jesus went and prayed and came back only to find the 3 disciples still sleeping and how many times, I wonder, does the Lord look down and find us sleeping when we should be watching and praying, lest we fall into temptation! We looked at Peter's 3 denials of Jesus, the same man who in the upper room said, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." Mat 26:35 We all have great intentions but sometimes they fall apart even when we did not mean for them to. But the beauty of this story is found in John 21:15-19. Jesus 3 times asks Peter, "Do you love me!" and reinstates him by telling him to take care of His sheep, feed His sheep! Jesus knows that we are weak but we MUST know that He is STRONG!! The power in the story is seen when we look at Peter in Acts. Look at chapter 4:13, I really like this verse, it says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Look at those words, UNSCHOOLED, ORDINARY, our God can use anyone who is willing to be used. But the best part is "... THEY TOOK NOTE THAT THESE MEN HAD BEEN WITH JESUS." Oh, how I pray that my life will reflect that, "this man has been with Jesus!" This should be the desire of each of our hearts. Each of us, if we but only ask, can be forgiven just like Peter and we can have the same power that Peter displays in the book of Acts if we allow control of our lives to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. If Jesus is not Lord of your life today, He can be if you will just ask Him into your life! I pray that you will!

This is the hill that we had to climb and then descend to get to and from the church!!