Children's Day & Easter Celebrations

I have heard many time that Bolivia has more holidays than normal days. It seems like every week we have a reason to celebrate - partly because everyone gets their own day! Most recently we have celebrated:

-New Years

-Bolivian New Years

-Anniversary of the new name of Bolivia

- Valentines Day

-Carnival (Mardi Gras)

-Father's Day

-Day of the Sea

-Pedestrian Day #1 (of four)

-Children's Day

-Good Friday

-Easter

This might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but by the time you throw in birthdays and protests in the road, we have a LOT of holidays. 

However, Easter in Bolivia is very different from my idea of Easter. Because the catholic church in Bolivia has mixed  many indigenous and superstitious customs, the evangelical church typically avoids anything related to the catholic church. Unfortunately, that means egg hunts/ baskets/ and Easter chocolates are rare. Confetti eggs are unheard of, and my Easter lunch consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches. ( We did talk about the resurrection at church though, so really I just miss the shallow parts of Easter. :) ) 

Fortunately, Children's Day this year happened to fall close to Easter, so we had a good excuse to celebrate with the kids at Happy Hour and church.

On Friday the church hosted an excursion day at a local park, and we were able to spend the day with good friends. Several families gave testimony to how God is working in their lives. It is exciting to see how God is working in and through the local church.

The testimony of a family that has been at the church for the last year, sharing about how God has changed their family since accepting Christ.

On Saturday at Happy Hour, a group of teenagers from the church came and put on a puppet show about prayer and obedience. I never did get a good count, but we served about 120 pieces of cake at the end!

Franco representing the Cowboys. :)

Someone was more interested in the camera than the puppet show.....

On Sunday at church, the same group of teenagers performed for all of the children in Sunday School, and we helped with crowd control and passing out the snacks. (My favorite!) We also celebrated Easter with baptisms after the service, and 16 people from the church were baptized!

Overall, it was a great Easter weekend. We are thankful for Jesus' death and resurrection, and for one more reason to celebrate!