[from Donna]
This year, around the world, Easter followed a lent of desperation due to the corona virus pandemic. It has been hard time for everyone and in many places around the world the light at the end of the tunnel is not yet in sight.
In spite of that, we had a breakthrough for Easter and because we live far from the city, in a small village, we were able to finally get together with some of our family members and celebrate a very simple, but meaningful Easter Sunday. We sang songs of joy from our thankful hearts. He is Risen, He is Alive!
The confinement measures imposed globally brought out creativity within the family. Jorge took time to record some of his old songs from the 70’s and get them out into circulation again. Cristiana is also sharing her lovely songs via video and Eman and girls have a great musical team now producing videos as well! Also, Eman is bringing us classic hymns and blessing our home fellowships with his amazing piano skills. Moms are perfecting new recipes and training new cooks, and the girls are enjoying the experience of indoor camping.
Two birthdays were celebrated this month. Little Aurora is now two years old and very happy to be so. Her vocabulary is increasingly by the minute, and she expresses herself with much confidence and ado! We had our first ever online birthday celebration for Ben, who is now 24. As so many other people around the world do now-a-days, we joined to sing Happy Birthday together online! Now we wait to see each other in person again, hopefully over Summer.
Philip and Julie and their children, Zac and Riley have also been in touch with many communications and videos that we enjoy very much. It is always a blessing to see everyone even if just online.
Meanwhile, it seems there is great hope for restoration and healing around our city, with most cases of the virus already healed and no new cases for the past 20 days or so. The weather has been helping out, with the warm sun and great air quality bringing people out to the beach nearby us. Usually most people would go to shopping centers, however, since most of those are still closed and people are afraid to get infected, they come to the beach, and bring the children. Why not?
