Easter Celebration!

Easter is the second most celebrated day in Uganda, second only to Christmas! In Uganda Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are national holidays. Calo Me Lare (the orphanage where we serve, sponsored by Project Hope Worldwide) and Hope Alive Fellowship also went to extreme measures to celebrate Easter.

There are no Easter bunnies or egg hunts included in the celebrations here. Everyone knows it is Jesus resurrection we celebrate. Families try to come together to have a special meal, singing, dancing and games. How would we make Easter special for our CML (Calo Me Lare) family?!

A few days before Easter our Administrator met with the moms, child representatives from each home, the Social Worker and the three of us volunteering from the U.S. with the specific purpose of planning Easter Day. He wanted the children to tell us what THEY would like to see at Easter and then wanted us to try to arrange it. Singing, dancing, & eating were at the top of their list. One of the girls, Lucky, wanted the moms to have new clothes for Easter. This is how it played out:

Rachel had clothes that the December team had left for the moms. She had given out the kids’ Christmas clothes and had run out of time and energy. Little did she know that God was keeping the mothers’ clothes “for such a time as this.” Rachel & I went through the clothes and were able to give each full-time mom and each step-in mom one outfit plus an extra garment. It was amazing to see how God had prepared in advance for this!

We had a great service Sunday morning. There was much singing, dancing and jumping up & down in praise to our Savior. The children love to sing and worship Jesus. Pastor Fred delivered a powerful sermon about the resurrection of Jesus. Because Jesus is alive we know we also will live with Him in heaven when He comes again! While He was preaching the children’s teachers were telling them the Easter Story. Each child got a sweet (hard piece of candy), which is a very special treat for them. There must have been about 150 children.

After church we all went to the Center House for our special Easter meal which the children chose: chicken, rice (the moms added cabbage) & sodas. They were all so happy. The children sat in groups in the center house; it was great! J (The moms are wonderful cooks! Each mom cooks for her own children and each day one of them cooks for the staff as well).

Above, Dennis & Rachel are eating lunch and playing with some of the kids.

After lunch Walter, our Social Worker, played some worship songs we would be familiar with in our churches in the U.S. He showed pictures of the children before they came to CML and had them guess who each one was. That was a special time for the kids & staff.

Next, there was a dance contest for everyone who wanted to participate. The kids lined up in fours and competed against each other, dancing to local music. The winner of each group was in the final competition and two boys were the overall winners. The kids had so much fun! There was a lot of laughter. J

Each mom gave her children a small gift, a bookmark which was left by Connie Madden, our President’s wife, last March. The verse on it was John 3:16. I challenged them to memorize it and over half of them did.

Now it was time for the football (soccer) competition. The older kids competed against the moms. The kids won 3-0, but everyone had fun! The moms really seemed to enjoy being with their kids on Easter.

In the evening everyone had supper and we saw The Ten Commandments at the church. Actually, we only saw half of it when the power went off, but it was 9:30 and some of the kids were sleeping so we were dismissed. What a wonderful day!!! 

We are so thankful to be here and share some of these joyous memories.

Thank you for your prayers and may God bless you abundantly for all you are doing to support us and these precious children.

Dennis & Margie