"He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today..."

You know, the story of the Resurrection doesn't get old.

I was sitting in church reading my Bible, and I got excited all over again when I read about the angel in the tomb telling Mary that Jesus was unbelievably and amazingly NOT THERE!

That's my Jesus. He's awesome! Period.

We sang "The Old Rugged Cross" in Japanese, and the sermon was also in Japanese. Takenori told me that the pastor was talking about how Thomas doubted Jesus. According to Takenori, the pastor also said that many Japanese people know the true meaning of Christmas, but they don't know about Easter.

That's exactly what I've found, too. When I did an Easter lesson at one of the elementary schools last month, Easter was a new concept for them. I taught them about dying eggs, Easter baskets, egg hunts and all that fun stuff, but I also used it as an opportunity to talk about Jesus.

I can get away with that here because I'm educating them about my culture, which includes Christianity. At a public school in America, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't fly if I started talking about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross when teaching about Easter. (Which is too bad since that's the whole point of Easter!)

Granted, when teaching students (or Japanese people in general) about Easter, I can't actually use the word "resurrection" since I have to simplify my language. The elementary teachers have very limited English, so I have to explain things in an extremely basic way so they can explain to the students in Japanese. It's a challenge.

But as best as I can, I've told people here about how, as a Christian, I believe that Jesus died so that you and me, and everyone who believes, can go to heaven. Hallelujah!

I hope that you had a blessed Easter thinking about this truth and continue to be uplifted by God's unconditional love for you.