2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 19: GENERAL CONFERENCE & HOLY WEEK! 💖 (Part 2)
2025(6) Faith Leap - Chapter 19: GENERAL CONFERENCE & HOLY WEEK! 💖 (Part 2)
Highlights:
- Last Supper meal on Atonement Wednesday
- Passover meal with the Missionaries on Crucifixion Thursday
- New traditions: natural food egg dye (that actually worked!); decorating our eggs with names of people we have gathered this year, and characteristics of Christ we are working to develop; Deliverance soup (from Thursday's leftovers)
- Good Friday: Stillness for most of us, a long day of ministering for Richard
- A pretty remedy for our allergies
Prayer Requests:
- A prayer (and even fasting) in gratitude for our Savior is a balm to the soul
Details:
Last Supper and Atonement Wednesday
I recognize that most people traditionally commemorate Jesus Christ's suffering in Gethsemane on Thursday - combining the Last Supper with the Passover Meal. Certainly Matt, Mark, and Luke accounts are consistent with this timing. We have chosen to follow the timeline that the Last Supper was a separate meal on Wednesday. Our reasons are 1) Matt 12:40 - if Christ was in the tomb 3 nights and rose on Sunday morning, it means He had to be placed in the tomb on Thursday. Every one of my kids have questioned the math of a Friday crucifixion - we just like the math of this scenario better, 2) Ex 12:5-6, 1Cor 5:7, John 19:14, Luke 23:44, and Mark 15:25 - I love the symbolism of Christ, as the sacrificial lamb, surrendering His spirit as the Passover lambs were being sacrificed 3) We really like being able to spread out our ponderings about the many crucial final events of the Savior's mortal ministry a little more.
I failed to get a picture of our Last Supper: a simple meal of Lentil Soup, Matza (unleavened bread), and Water. I love the quiet stillness of this moment while we read the final words of the Savior to his disciples, remember our baptismal covenants and the symbolism of the sacrament; then, in Fasting, we ponder the suffering, pleading, submission, and love of Christ's final solitary moments. We stand all amazed. Here is Miss' depiction of the Savior in the Garden:
Richard here, Laurie's posts always represent our whole family and our amazing experiences. But I just want to insert a special experience I had while fasting this week as part of Holy Week. Midway through fasting, I realized I hadn't paused to pray over my fast and articulate a purpose. My mind went through many possible purposes, but as I began my prayer, Heavenly Father filled my heart with my purpose - gratitude for the atoning sacrifice of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I cannot put into words the depth of gratitude that rushed over me and still lingers. Because of the joy that was set before Him, He endured everything for me, and for you! The love of Heavenly Father and His Son is immeasurable! I testify of it with my whole heart! Now, back to your regularly scheduled blogger, Laurie.
Crucifixion and Passover Thursday
In Leviticus 16, Aaron cast lots upon 2 goats: one represented the Lord, and was presented for sacrifice; the other, the scapegoat, was set free. At His trial, Pilate gave the people an option: Christ or Yeshua Barabbas (meaning "son of the father"). Christ, the actual Son of the Father, was sacrificed on the cross, while the other, a murderer, was set free. Among the crowd, there were likely many good people who, because of a number of reasons (fear, unpracticed discernment/outsourced thinking, peer-pressure, etc.) couldn't see the Truth before them. As the dissemination of endless information in our day becomes harder and harder to discern and source, I feel more empathy for this crowd - surrounded by loud and confident voices. I have been amazed and grateful for the stillness of my soul that I have felt during this Holy Week - a reminder that Christ's promised peace truly is available in opposition to the adversary's noise. And His grace, mercy, and forgiveness are extended for the moments when our discernment fails.
We said goodbye to Daisy (the lamb), and our beloved Batumi Branch missionaries joined us for our passover meal, and shared a beautiful Easter message with us. I love the step by step symbolism within the symbolism of the Passover, and the exciting doctrines of the Restored Gospel that so richly compliment/add to the traditional feast that points us to the Savior's love, mission, and invitations to us.
Known as the birthplace of wine, you'd be surprised (or maybe I shouldn't be surprised?) how tricky it is to find grape juice here. Wine is everywhere. But they don't seem to have a concept for unfermented. We found some - but even that tasted just a touch ripe. 😬 Richard must have accidentally left a bag at the market because, when we went to pull it out to wash and prepare it, we were missing half of our produce for the meal. 😮 But it all worked out - we improvised with some broccoli leaves for our bitter herbs, and the missionaries were good sports about it. And the lady at the market was so sweet, it was worth it. (Speaking to her in Georgian, Richard greeted her with "Christ is Risen!" Surprised, she excitedly replied, "Truly, He is!" and asked, "You speak Georgian, you believe in the Christ, and you buy a lot of groceries?!? Who are you?!?" and then she gave him a free churchkhela. 🥰
I'm throwing in this photo too because I love it. The amazing sky - the sun peeking out after the raging storm that preceded, the way Bob is standing, and the group of missionaries...it speaks to me of the darkness of Christ's final moments with the promise of better things to come, and of my gratitude for the friendships that Bob has formed with this wonderful group of exemplars.
Our second, new tradition - that I am most excited about: before placing the eggs in the dye, we used crayon to write names of people that we have done temple work for this year, and/or with attributes of Christ that we are working to develop (in addition to fun designs). Bob even drew the outline of the countries the people were from. (See pic in Friday's details) Now, when we gather our eggs on Saturday morning, it is easier to reflect on the gathering Christ did in the spirit world while His body lay in the tomb, and of our commitment to Him to Gather Israel and work to become more like Him. 💗 (PS - Family Search makes it super easy to find the names of the people you've taken to the Temple. Go to "Temple" and then "Completed"). It was actually beautifully tender to review those names and remember finding them, the stories I read about them, my relationship to them, my temple visits, etc.
I love how most of our eggs turned out! We used turmeric for yellow, purple cabbage for blue, beets for what was supposed to be red (but they turned out brown 😢), and a combination of turmeric and cabbage was a surprising lime green! (even though the water was orange...). I'm really glad we did the eggs on Thursday night because this gave us some buffer time to attempt to "fix" the boring brown eggs by soaking them in other colors - including red onion water this time - for several more hours. As you can see, this mostly just made them all a darker brown.😝 I think, though, the red onion would make a beautiful red color on white eggs - we'll try that next year. Look how vibrant the non-beet ones are! 😍
Good Friday
This rock art is for both Friday and Saturday: a closed tomb, with Christ teaching in the spirit world:
On Friday, we had a good contrast of taking time to be still (symbolic of Christ's still body), and ministering (as His spirit was doing during that time).
It worked out that it was already my weekly Temple-minded time (explained in this talk I gave - from Chapter 10). The kids and I worked on school work, prepared for service within the Branch this weekend, etc, and watched the movie, "The Prince of Egypt". We tried our new "Deliverance Soup" (with unleavened bread) tradition: So as to not waste the veggies we boiled for egg-dying, Thursday night we put them in a pot with leftovers from our Passover Meal and this became Friday's dinner. This seemed fitting on the commemoration of the day the Israelites would have received permission to leave and would have needed to do so in haste - using up whatever was in the home that couldn't be taken with them. The soup was surprisingly delicious!
Richard spent 12 hours with other members of the Elder's Quorum helping an investigating friend, Lucy, fix a doghouse and build a pen for the injured dog she adopted off the street. Richard says that it felt a little like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - in that Lucy has many friends and neighbors with strong opinions about what should be done and how. 😅 Lucy has a tender heart and also isn't afraid to ask hard questions - but she never does so in a spirit of contention. She is earnestly wanting to find truth. She also has beautiful faith. Despite non-stop rain in the forecast for this entire weekend, she prayed and prayed all week that it would clear up for the the blessing of the men who would be working outdoors to provide her this service. And it did! I am so grateful God granted her this miracle!
Not related to Holy Week, but notable: we have had a sore throat and stinging eyes that come and go over the last few weeks. We've determined it must be seasonal allergies. Our South African friend helped us harvest some of this plant that blooms here every spring (I believe it is purple deadnettle) that locals use for preventing/treating allergies. Shout out to my friend, Heidi, who was the first to teach me that the first weeds to spring up in the most likely/most difficult conditions (dry, rocky, etc), are the most useful for treating ailments that are associated with those difficult conditions. They are God's gift - providing what we need, when we need it. I am grateful to Jeannine for teaching me how to use this gift.
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