There is one English speaking church community here that meets two Sunday's a month. So on the alternate Sunday's we do 'home church'. This has been a great time of bible stories, singing, drawing Goliath and David (Rachel's favourite story!) and praying together. Obviously this is very basic due to the age of our audience but it's great to see them both eager to know more about Jesus.
Last summer we were kindly given two copies of the same children's bible (by different people). It's called the 'the Jesus Storybook Bible' and is a great bible for Rachel. It also comes with a DVD set of the stories animated and narrated. So for home church we usually watch one of the DVD stories. Last Sunday was the off week so we were home with the girls. Being palm Sunday we decided that this would be a great opportunity to talk to Rachel about the true Easter story. As we listened to the animated story 'the sun stops shining', I watched Rachel with big eyes sitting so still on Sams lap. As she took in the reality of what happened to Jesus, tears pricked the back of my eyes.
Jesus came to rescue us...Jesus died on a cross for us...Jesus was beaten and cruelly killed so we may be free...Jesus rescued the whole world. She wasn't scared, she wasn't horrified, she was clearly moved and she had many questions. The bottom line was though that she in some part understood that Jesus died for her. Wow!
We then went on to watch the resurrection, 'Gods wonderful surprise' so Rachel could understand the full story. As we watched the change in the woman's emotions from such deep sadness, to confusion, to fear, to such unexpected gladness, a line in the story resonated so deeply within me...'all Mary wanted in that moment was to cling to Jesus and never let Him go'.
Living in Chad has definitely taught me how much I want to and need to cling to Jesus everyday. I honestly can say I don't know how I would live life here if I wasn't clinging to Jesus. So many incidents and occasions come to mind where I can so clearly see that I had nothing but Jesus...the night we had a medical emergency and are desperately trying to find the mission hospital out into the dessert trying to identify random landmarks in the dark...we clung to Jesus who guided us there; the moment a motorcyclist crashed into the back of the car as we were turning and in seconds many people have surrounded the car...we clung to Jesus who provided the right person to give the right advise in their most basic French so I could understand; daily driving and living in a city where we are foreigners and much of the language around us is so unknown to us...we cling to Jesus to understand and be understood; when riots erupt and the sound of gunfire rings round while the smell of tear gas creeps in...we cling to Jesus for our security and protection; as daily life on the compound in such high heats with small children so easily becomes monotonous and purposeless...we cling to Jesus for our identity and purpose in it all.
As each day comes with knows and unknowns, expectations and fears, joys and frustrations one thing I am certain of everyday is that as I cling to Jesus and never let Him go, He will hold me tight and never let me go...and that is how I can keep on living the life He has called us to.
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