Happy Easter!

 I am so thankful Jesus came to live as a person whose service and teaching we now can follow. I am so thankful he accepted to horrific cup of crucifixion and death to pay for my salvation so that I can have the hope of Heaven. And I praise him for conquering death and proving He is Lord! Hallelujah!

Our Easter celebration was a little different for us, but still wonderful. Probably the most different part was that I didn’t take a hundred pictures and we didn’t even get one family one! Haha.

On Saturday, we had a lovely brunch, including baked goods from the new Azteca Pan bakery in Colfax, which is owned by one of Sylvia’s classmates and his brother. Jeremy stopped in and picked up a beautiful selection, and everything is so delicious! 

We enjoyed relaxing around the house together, and in the afternoon Carter came over to visit Sylvia. We all had pot roast and enjoyed the evening together as well.

As we were getting ready for bed, Annah shared how exhausted she is with school. Her first couple years of college have not been a good experience, what with Greenville dropping her major and all the yuck that came from that, then all the stress Covid and the political unrest that has added upon transferring to a new school in the middle of it. She has one more month before coming home for the summer. We all have been feeling so sad and emotionally and mentally exhausted these past months. And we are each struggling in our own ways, and it feels so hard to help each other when we are each so down. We need Jesus so much.

Over the past few weeks, we have been attending a different church. There are a lot of reasons, but it has proven to be the best choice for us right now. (Annah hs been attending church with Ryan when they’re home.) We attended at 8am today, and it was a fantastic service and time of worship.

Much of the sermon was around Luke 8 and how Jesus healed in response to faith. The part the spoke to me the most was when the pastor made a parallel of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years--how exhausted she was, how she had used up all her resources, how excluded and secluded she was made to be--to how we have all been feeling over the past year. Yes. And then, the woman was brave in her faith to fight through a crowd she wasn't supposed to be in to reach out in faith and touch Jesus, believing and knowing He could instantly heal her. Her despair was not the end of her story and it doesn't have to be the end of ours!