Easter blessing year 3

I think we officially have a tradition started as this is our 3rd year in a row of taking Easter blessings around to our families.  This is such a special time as we get to bless them with some food, share with them hope and truth from God’s Word, pray with them, and we all get to remember together why we celebrate this special day when our Lord and Savior Jesus was raised from the dead overcoming death and giving eternal life to all those who believe.

This tradition started back in 2013 when Dylan and I were VERY new to Guatemala.  We were still in language school and were meeting up with our friend Jon to go visit the families we serve.  God put it on our hearts to buy some food for the families and Jon had some donations he had just received so we were able to make up small Easter bags for the 10 families we were serving at that time.

Dylan and Jon packing the Easter blessing bags we handed out the first year.

Then last year we received a donation from some of our family that allowed us to buy food for the 12 families we were serving at that time.

Easter blessing baskets for the the 12 families we were able to bless in 2014!

This year we were able to make full sized Easter baskets for all of the 17 families we now serve.  There were so many people who contributed to make this year a success.  God put in on the hearts of some of those on our missionary team to contribute to the baskets and Jon went with us again this year to help deliver some of these baskets, we had candy that was brought down from past teams, we had cross necklaces and salvation bracelets that a team we had translated for in November gave to us, and all of you who support us contributed to these baskets.

Now you might be thinking “what? I didn’t give anything towards any Easter baskets” but you did and let me tell you how.  First of all I know that most of you pray regularly for our families and you responded specifically to my request for prayer for our families as we prepared to do this Easter blessing. Also, God put it on our hearts to cut back on food over the last few months and use the money we saved to buy food for these families.  That means that for those of you who support us financially some of your money went directly to buying food to bless our families.

So thank you!  Thank you for blessing us so that we can continue to allow your blessings to flow through us to others!  It is such a privilege to get to serve here and have all of you Uniting 2 Serve along with us.

Here are some pictures of our time sharing these blessing baskets, sharing the truth of God’s Word, giving the kids cross necklaces, and teaching some of them how to make their salvation bracelets. We hope you enjoy seeing these pictures and that you enjoy seeing how you helped bless the families God has entrusted us all to serve for Him.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Isaiah 58:6-7