Czech Republic
23 March 2008; Easter Sunday
IBTS
Nad Habrovkou 3
Jeneralka, CZ – 16400 Prague 6
Dear Family and Friends,
“Christos Voskrese!” is the Eastern European greeting for Easter morning. The equally moving response is: “Vo istina Voskrese!” The English translation is perhaps more familiar to you.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
We have just had a wonderful Easter service this morning. It is the tradition for there to be a woman speaker on Easter morning since, in fact, it was the women who first discovered the empty tomb and then went to share the good news with the disciples. Our speaker this morning was Lina Andronoviene, a member of the teaching faculty who is also finishing up her PhD. She’s from Estonia. She led us through the darkness of the morning and to the tomb where Mary was so disappointed to find the body of Jesus taken, as she thought. Lina described Mary as bereft even of the ability to minister to the dead body of Jesus, the one who had transformed her life and the lives of many others. “Of course,” Lina said, “we are impatient to move quickly to the happy news of Jesus’ resurrection, but let us pause with Mary to understand her profound sorrow at supposing someone to have taken the body of her Lord and teacher away.” It was a helpful exercise to imagine ourselves in Mary’s place – the pain, the sorrow, the sense of absolute desertion that she experienced. Then to hear her name spoken by that familiar voice and to see through her tears the beloved face gave her unbelievable joy. For us, the joy of Easter morning becomes ever so much more real. We also sang some songs that were new to us – one from the British Baptist hymnal and one from Estonia. Somehow when you sing an entirely new song, don’t you find yourself paying more attention to the words and their meaning? Anyway, it’s true for me.
Our service was followed by a perfect lunch provided for all the seminary family by the CAT students! What a treat! Of course several of us provided a dish or two to add to the already laden table. They even dyed and decorated Easter eggs for us all. There was a gigantic bowl of Russian salad, some cheesy potatoes, a South African casserole with chicken, broccoli and peaches! And there were several plates of deviled eggs provided by the Livelys.
In a way the week has been short. We had Friday free of classes, and we’ll have Monday. But we continued with chapel each morning, and on Thursday and Friday evenings we celebrated Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. On Thursday the reading was about the Lord’s Supper, and, instead of a foot-washing, there was a basin and towel for individuals to wash the hands of others. Of course not everyone was washed or did the washing, but it was a very intimate and moving part of the service and gave the Supper even more meaning as we shared the bread and wine together. It was a true community event.
The Friday service was most unusual. We began with several lighted tea candles on a table surrounding the cross. Then, as each appointed individual read the appropriate scripture, he or she blew out a candle so that at the end, only one candle remained lighted. Eventually even that little light was extinguished so that we remained seated in great darkness for a period of meditation on the cross, the death, and the burial of Jesus.
Roger and I have been reminded of the several days of funeral-like services that the Baptists in Bulgaria used to have. Then, on Easter morning there was joy and celebration and singing and greeting one another like we had never seen. Easter is THE event in the Eastern European Christian calendar. And so it ought to be.
But it is still very much like winter here. We’ve had several snow-showery days, and we’ve had bright sun peering through the clouds; we’ve had sun and snow in the same moment, and snow mixed with freezing rain a few moments later. This morning – Easter morning – we awoke to the sight of big juicy white flakes of snow falling but (thankfully) not sticking! And now we have a blue sky and bright sunshine, the temperature in the 30s.
On Saturday the newly created social committee planned a photo taking treasure hunt in downtown Prague. The idea was that the students (we joined them) were divided into teams of five people each and given a marked map with a list of photo stops. Extra points were available to the teams who could get all team members in the photo, and creativity was encouraged. There were required photos on both sides of the Charles Bridge, in Old Town Square, along the Mustek area and in Wenceslas Square. I can’t remember walking so fast and laughing so long in all my life. We had Ivan the Bulgarian on our team. He is absolutely crazy. Roger was the photographer, so he was in only a few of the pictures, but from time to time we were successful in getting friendly tourists on the street to take our pictures. One of the requirements was to push a baby stroller without the parents in the photo. I never would have expected it, but one mother was most accommodating to us. Maybe she expected that her baby would become famous, photographed in the middle of this raggedy looking but enthusiastic group of laughing people. I mean we had to have pictures with a street musician, with the famous astronomical clock, with the hawkers of Czech sausages and corn on the cob, with the Easter egg tree and with the artisans selling their wares at the little Easter markets here and there in Old Town Square and Mustek, all within two hours time. The judging will take place on Monday evening at a faculty home across from the campus. There we’ll have a gathering to laugh at all our exploits and see who has the winning number of required photos. I feel sure our team will have the most creative shots – maybe not all the required ones. We’ll see.
Roger and I had thought it would be a good idea to go from place to place with the groups to see some sights we may have missed and to prepare for showing Prague off to our visitors next week. We will welcome our surrogate granddaughter, Bessie Segran. She is the daughter of Malaysian friends Grace and Raja Segran. Bessie is a PhD student in Indian studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Her parents are in Brussels now, and she with her roommate are there now and will come to us on Tuesday. We are sure to have some “sights” to show of Prague, but somehow I doubt she will be interested in the sort of “chase” we did yesterday.
To all of you, may we wish a very blessed Easter. For many of you this early Easter season has been cold and unlike the spring weather we are accustomed to, but it is, after all, the season of joy and love and hope. We pray that you are experiencing all of those. Blessings!
With love,
Janice and Roger
