Христос воскрес!  ---  Воистину воскрес!

this means...

Christ has Risen!  ---  Indeed He has Risen!

On Easter here in Ukraine, you will not hear your normal everyday greetings from people. On Easter you will here the words "Christ has Risen!, and in return to this greeting, you would reply "Indeed He has Risen!". After the greeting, you would greet them with three kisses, on one cheek, then the other, then back to the other cheek. 

I am so blessed to be able to serve a Risen Savior!

  "He is not here: for he is risen, as he said..."  Matthew 28:6

We had a wonderful Easter service. We started our Easter Sunday out by having a Sun Rise Service at 7:00am. Then after the early morning service we had a wonderful Breakfast together, thanks to a couple ladies in the church that helped me prepare the meal. The men then had their normal Sunday Prayer together which followed by a Special Service by our guest speaker Bro. Eugene Kozachenko. We were blessed to have him come to our church to do an Easter Seder. 

The Table set up for the Seder

Bro. Eugene Kozachenko showing us what the Jews do.

We were also blessed with a Men's Trio.

I'm sorry that I cannot show you the original special with all three of them. The video did not turn out very well, so I asked Marc and Joshua to sing it again for me at home. 

Translation of the song:

A teardrop fell on hot sand

Blood dried on the cheeks.

Midday sun as a red flower

Seemed to stop at it's highest point.

Armor rattled, swords clanged

Glittering in the scorching sun.

Loudly laughing the butchers were mocking at

The Lamb who hung on the tree.

Only the Almighty Father

Could give His Son to be sacrificed

Such Love is indeed incomprehensible

For fathers' hearts.

When He loved, He wasn't loved,

When He forgave, they cursed Him.

He didn't pay them back for the evil they did

Including those who were crucifying Him.

The blood was shed for all humanity

By infinitely priceless value.

Calvary rose up above a sinful world

And was made, was made the center of the universe.

After the services  were over, we went home to spend some family time together.

The boys playing basketball.

Anna in her daddy's coat :)

Tony preparing the shosh-leak. (shosh-leak is seasoned meat cooked over smoke) Yummy!

Roxie checking out the meat. "Please, can I have some?"

And while the meat was cooking, yes, we had roasted marsh mellows. 

(It is Resurrection Day, What if Jesus came back before we got to the marsh mellows? ha ha)

The marsh mellows were sent by Grandma Rouse! 

Thanks Grandma!

Mmmmmm.... Must get all the marsh mellow off :)

Yummy!

Flowers blooming 

And had to end our Wonderful Day with popcorn!!!

Happy 16th Birthday Marc!

You've reached this wonderful milestone in your life!

Marc's birthday was split up a bit since his birthday landed on Wednesday this year. We had a wonderful day of school to start out with! ha ha Then we had a great time together that evening after our church service. Every year for their birthday I ask the kids what kind of cake and dinner they would like. This year was no surprise when Marc asked for Lasagna and Brownies instead of a cake.

Marc blowing out his 16 candles on his brownies :)

Then on Friday we let him invite all of his friends to go horseback riding! What a beautiful day the Lord gave us. They were all so excited. For most of them, this was the first time ever to ride a horse. I found out later that it had been a dream for a few of them. They all did wonderful and had so much fun. 

Marc

Since we were such a big group, we had to go in two different groups. Joshua and I ended up with the same horse. The one that they said liked to GO :) Had to hold him back a few times, but it was a lot of fun.

 (Thank you Bro. and Mrs. Childers for the horseback riding lessons while we were in the states. It sure did come in handy!)

Lena

Nastia

Mesha

Nelya

Sveta

Joshua

Katya

Natasha

Igor

Me 

Tonya

Katya

Well, after having the time of our lives on horseback, we loaded up in the van and headed to the house for Shosh-leak which Tony and Caleb were kind enough to be fixing, while we were gone. 

"Thank you for making my birthday party so cool. I love you bunches!" Marc

Happy Birthday to my Caleb!

 

What a day we had! We started out his birthday by going to the village, as Caleb wanted to share his birthday cake with the kids there. We had such a fun time. We had Bible time, singing time, game time, and then we ate birthday cake! Then we headed back to Simferopol for a fun filled day at the park with his friends, there! But sad to say, it turned out to be a very cool and wet day so the plans changed  from a Park Party  into a Hess Home Party! They were all a little disappointed about the change in activities, but when I told them that we would go to the park when it turned warm, They didn't seem to mind having Two Special Days! They played and played and played some more and then we had cake, cupcakes, and ice cream! You may think, why so much cake? ha ha Well, I made cupcakes thinking that it would be nicer for the park and make a cake for the village kids. Well, my husband, being the thoughtful man that he is, was out in town when I was baking, and came home with a cake to take to the village so I wouldn't have to bake 2.  But do you think we all minded? Not a bit!  The cake and cupcakes were all gone at the end of the day!