the hunt

In India, our home has become a haven.  A place that is familiar, safe, predictable--- many of the things that India is not.  But just outside those comfortable walls is a colony of people that still do not know or understand the love of Jesus.  So when Easter rolled around, we knew we wanted to spotlight the REAL reason that we celebrate this holiday.  Since this was our first outreach opportunity we started small and invited all of the children to an Easter Party.  And with the help of some sweet church friends in the States, we had everything we needed to pull it off... plastic eggs, Easter grass, and American candy!

A few days before, I made the rounds and invited all the children.  Our party was set for Sunday morning at 9:30.  At 8:30, our gate looked like this:



India is known for tardiness, but from what I understand, the children don't fit that stereotype.  I also learned that parents do not attend parties with their children- instead, they send almost 30 of them, many of whom speak only Hindi, ALONE!  At 9:30 I bravely opened the gates and we started with a few games.  We really wanted to play the obligatory Egg Toss, but we were leery since many of the children are "non-veg."  So we went with a few other traditional Easter games like the Egg and Spoon Race.

These boys showed them how it was done though.

 

And even in India, it's tempting to "hold" the egg...  otherwise known when I was a kid as "cheating!"





We also played Pass the Egg but we used our elbows.

They were great sports.  But all those games helped work up quite an appetite, and no party is complete without snacks.  

Serving food was mass chaos.  I've lost my knack for controlling large groups of children.  There were kids everywhere.  Food everywhere.  Drinks everywhere.  But I think they all left full.

While they ate, I dished out seconds, and Jason hid over 400 Easter eggs.  After the food, it was time for the hunt.  

Since these children had never participated in an Easter egg hunt, we had to give out some instructions. We explained that the eggs were hidden all throughout the grassy area.  As always, our final rule was allow the smaller kids to get the most obvious eggs.  Unfortunately we didn't realize that those were the only eggs ANYONE would see.  After some extra clues about where they could find the eggs, they were ready to hunt eggs.

They combed through every bush, shrub, and blade of grass.  I don't know if they found EVERY egg, but they tried their best.

This little guy didn't do too shabby himself!

The prize eggs were a little tricky to find, but a few kids went home a little richer and lot happier!  At the end, they all gathered under the gazebo to ramble through their loot.  We certainly wanted to send them home with the love of Christ, so we printed out cute little books that clearly share the story of Easter.  Since getting them to stand in line for chips was impossible, we knew a 10 minute sermon on the Gospel was out of the question!  Taking the books home gave them something to take with them, and it also put something in the parents' hands!  We wanted them to know that even more important than Easter eggs is the love of Jesus Christ.

30 children can do some major damage!  But we loved every minute of it.  We are prayerful that the seeds we sow will begin to sprout... starting right here in our neighborhood!







 *** I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Old Oak Grove Baptist Church and Macedonia Baptist Church for  helping us out with this project!  You all are such a special part of our lives and ministry and we are so grateful for your continued support and prayers!  Much love from the Marlins!