Burning the leavened bread before Passover, teaching the kids about finding and getting rid of sin in our lives…and “Lamby” got to be there for it!
Every year we think it would be fun to do something for Passover. This year we finally had time to do it! The Israelites were told to bring a young lamb into their home on Sunday and keep it for 4 days before slaughtering it on Passover. Our kids went through the exercises of searching the house the night before for leavened bread (which Amy cleverly hid) and burning it outside. They bottle-fed the lamb and gave it a name, and then on Thursday he became supper. We had some friends over and we read through a gospel-centered Passover Seder and the kids got to learn some valuable lessons. We often say “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” but the image is so scrubbed and sanitized that it’s easy to forget that Jesus had a mother who nursed Him, brothers and sisters who loved Him, and friends who spent years with him. The kids got to say goodbye to Lamby before we did the deed, but Jesus’ friends didn’t get to say goodbye. They watched him be arrested, beaten tried, nailed, mocked and killed. Now we understand the beauty of Jesus’ death and Resurrection for our adoption and sanctification, but when Jesus was laid in the tomb His friends were hopeless, they had no idea what was about to come! What a great opportunity to teach Ezekiel and Caleb about the seriousness of their sin and the depths to which Jesus had to go for their salvation.
We had Lamby in our house for 4 days, from Palm Sunday until Thursday when he became our Passover meal. The kids learned how people loved Jesus before he had to die for our sin.
Amy has been busy with homeschool, discipling Teresa and weekly meetings with the ladies from Lalonga where they are learning Bible stories to share and understand the gospel. She has gotten to overcome some of the strong African suppositions about the beginning of sin and judgment. Why were Adam and Eve ashamed? It wasn’t because there was something wrong with being naked or because (as many here believe) their nakedness meant they had “come together.” The shame came because understanding sin meant understanding nakedness…having something to hide…broken relationship with God, man and creation.
Justin has also been busy with language and studying Life of Christ and Old Testament with Paul. Last week we talked about John the Baptist, after all that he had seen and done, doubting that Jesus was the Messiah. We talked about prayers that feel like they haven’t been answered. Paul acknowledged that after three years of trying to have a second child and not succeeding, His wife is happier and more joyful than she has ever been because she knows that God is a good Father, providing for her needs, and that she doesn’t have to be jealous or angry about being barren. In the midst of this “unanswered prayer” God has taught Issaye that she can be content with what He has given her and find joy in it, and Paul is seeing God’s sovereign hand working in things that don’t go the way we want them to go.
This month Amy gets to go to a missionary wives’ retreat for a week where she will be pampered, fed and get to spend time with other wives from African mission fields. During that week, while we wait for Amy’s return, Justin and the kids will be getting some shopping and car work done during our last trip to Uganda before home assignment!
There are still quite a few churches whom I have emailed but who have not responded. We are currently scheduling churches in St. Louis during October and Kansas City for November and December. If you are reading this and we haven’t been scheduled at your church yet, help us out! You can respond to these newsletter emails to get ahold of us, and we would love to connect with as many of you as possible while we are home. If we don’t get to visit your church, we can always meet for coffee or a meal sometime and catch up.
Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support!
Justin, Amy, Ezekiel and Caleb
Lamby’s sad fate. We did follow the law and left no piece of him uneaten for the next day!
