Our Easter

Our Easter Celebration began on Thursday with the school Easter program. The entire Elementary performed a couple songs and quoted John 11:25-26. Then the high-schoolers took the stage and did a reading and drama of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. They also did a stick dance to the song, “Arise, My Love” which is performed by Newsong. That night, we ate some left over ice cream from one of the classes’ parties (with permission, of course). Actually, it wasn’t JUST ice cream. We feasted on ice cream sundaes!

The Gang going to the Coast!

We got home and packed up our bags to be ready for the drive to the coast on Friday morning. We left our home at about 7 AM and headed up to a sweater village called “La Ligua.” Unfortunately, many of the shops were closed due to Good Friday, but we still managed to find a few treasures along the way.

......sitting on the side of the road.......waiting....

Then? It was off to our rented apartment in our rented van! We were on the road to our vacation! We were on the Panamerica Highway heading towards Valparaiso, Chile when another car driving came up beside us and motioned for us to pull over (he was flailing his arms vigorously). We pulled over, and he explained that he had seen fluid leaking underneath the van. THANKFULLY, it wasn’t diesel! However, it did smell like antifreeze. The passengers of our van decided to try driving to the next exit and see if the van heated up or not. We hadn’t even driven 100 yards when the heating gage started moving upward rapidly. We pulled over and someone called the van rental place to see about getting another vehicle. Little did we know how long of a wait we were in for……..

Brian defying gravity at the beach.....
how is this possible?

I must say, however, that I thoroughly enjoyed our 8 hour wait in the car. While it WAS inconvenient, I’m not denying that, it gave us opportunities for conversation that wouldn’t have been had otherwise. We played a variety of games that people had brought along, and we also feasted on granola bars for supper….thank goodness for snacks!

We pulled into our rental apartment some time after midnight and crashed. Day 2 we were able to see some penguins on a rock further out in the water and see a beautiful sunset on the ocean. We also enjoyed a hearty meal for supper.

Worshipping with the Williamsons

Day 3 we had a mini-Easter service where we sang songs and each shared a meaningful verse in the Bible to us as well as an explanation of WHY it was important. It was a precious time of fellowship and worship. Then, we went down to Vina Del Mar and enjoyed a stroll along the beach there where an artisan fair was going on.

On the way home, we were part of a major taco (Chilean term for traffic jam) that went from 13 lanes of traffic down to 2!!!! It was unbelievable. We all made it home safely and soundly in our new rental van……notice the difference from the first one!

Happy Easter (belated) to all of you reading this!!!!!