In 1722, Dutch Explorer Jacob Roggeveen encountered an Island on Easter Sunday and most creatively named it Easter Island. While we are not very close to Easter Island here on Papua, we share the same ocean, and relatively the same climate making Easter Sunday rather balmy. So much like Jacob Roggeveen we headed to the beach to celebrate the holiday.
Well, technically we went to the beach on Friday as we had the day off school. We drove to a port, and then had to take a boat to the beach. The boat was built for around 10 people, so in true Indonesian style, we crammed 18 people plus luggage on the boat (yes, Mom, Elise had a life jacket and we sat in the middle of the boat). We spent most of the day snorkeling in beautiful blue water with Nemo and all his fishy friends, eating our fill of Rambutan (Hairy-fruit), and napping in hammocks. It made me stop and think, “I can’t believe I am here.”
In fact, it was a perfect weekend to think such things because without the Death and Resurrection of Christ, we would not be on this Island. The beach is nice, I’ll give you that, but other than that I wouldn’t choose to live here. Yet, the Good News has taken root in Papua and the Lord has chosen our family to support the spread of it.
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| Elsie's first long walk on the beach |
Thus to celebrate the most life changing event in history on Papua was very special. We did do some traditional things like eat ham and have an egg hunt, both of which lessened the sting of not being with family. But the fact is we sat in the beautiful home of a family who also would not be here, eating a non-kosher meal, on an Indonesian Island, all because of Easter.
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| The hammock club |
