Featured Stories
A collection of stories about the life of FPC ... where does your story fit in?
The Untold Stories of Easter Project
Watch the EP 2013 Slide Show - click here
Read the EP 2013 Senior Sermonettes - click here
Easter Project has been an important tradition of First Presbyterian Church for over two decades, and many of the stories surrounding the trip are now familiar. Fundraisers will happen, friendships will deepen, Jesus will be followed and multiple (six this year!) houses will be built for families who genuinely need them. Easter Project is truly a tradition. However, so much happens each year that is based completely on contexts that change from year to year and from group to group. Here are just a few snapshots from our week that hopefully help create a fuller picture of just what EP looks like:
Saturday, 4pm: We’ve been in Tijuana for less than 45 minutes. I look down off the 6th floor balcony to see over 25 of our students already engaged in a soccer match with some of the kids at the orphanage.
Sunday, 9am: Our second day in Tijuana this year happens to be Easter Sunday. Inspired by an idea from N.T. Wright that we should be people who “celebrate [Easter] wildly, lavishly, gloriously… We should drink champagne at breakfast.” Though laws in Mexico are a bit different, we still aren’t about to provide 58 high school students with champagne! However, we do provide sparkling cider, and I watch as the kids have quiet time spread out around the orphanage with a Bible in one hand and a glass of “champagne” in the other.
Tuesday, 6:00pm: All four of the churches currently staying at the orphanage gather in the main floor dining hall for our community dinner of rice, beans, and carne asada tacos prepared by the orphanage cooks. I get lost in a conversation with an old friend and later notice the line for food is very, very long. With over 200 people in the room the food line is understandably chaotic. I look around to find a table where I can wait out the line and notice that 95% of our kids are still seated, without food, choosing to go last.
Wednesday, 12:15pm: I am out all day visiting housing sites and happen to catch one group during lunch. On Wednesday we give the students their prayer partner letters from the folks back home. I walk up to the group to say hi and notice no one is really talking. There is a holy silence around their circle as they chew their PB&Js and read their letters. One girl is in tears as she reads, while another sits quietly and turns hers back over to read it a second time.
Thursday, 6:30pm: I ask the seniors to meet me in the chapel during dinner. We brought along keys for everyone on the trip with the word hope stamped into them, but don’t yet have a plan for handing them out to the students. I show the seniors the keys and ask if they’d be interested in choosing 2-3 of their peers to present with keys along with a verbal blessing of “how you’ve shown me Christ,” or “how you’ve given me hope.” They immediately agree, and within 20 minutes they each have a handful of intentionally chosen peers whom they were going to bless with “hope.”
Thursday 9:30pm: While worshipping together in the chapel I see beauty and hope everywhere I look. I see a senior guy walk up and sit across from a sophomore, look him in the eyes and tell him how he sees God in him, and why that gives him hope. I see them embrace, pull apart, laugh, and then embrace again. I see a see a senior lady give a key to a junior and speak truth into her life, walk away and then hustle back, grab her hands and pray for her. I see dozens of students, holding onto keys stamped with hope, knowing that through a Resurrected Christ, they are fully capable of creating beauty, fighting for justice, and being love to the world around them. Now that is hope.
— Brad Hauge
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Link to the Story |
Summary |
A glimpse into some sweet moments of Easter Project 2013 |
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Stories of faithfulness in the stewardship booklet |
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