Sunday...by Lucy

Easter Sunday was a very difficult day for me. I know that it was a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to write and let you know my thoughts about it. I'm not sure why, but it seemed to be harder for me to be away from home on Easter than on Christmas. I think one reason I struggled was because I felt like we truly celebrated Christmas, while Easter went by without much notice. I missed the music, the sunrise service and breakfast, the fellowship, and the worship. I think mostly I missed the JOY I feel on Easter morning when I am greeted by people saying, "Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed!"

When you don't understand much of the language, going to church can seem overwhelming. It is probably the hardest day of the week for me. Relationships are built on communication, and our communication is still very superficial "table talk." I long to meet with people on Sunday that I have relationship with, that I can communicate with. Instead Sundays often feel empty to me because I feel nothing because I can't understand the message being presented. I long to know why people are going forward for prayer. I find myself going through the motions, but feeling no emotion. I have to force myself to go, to try to break through the language barrier, to build relationships with other believers here.

I have thought often, since moving here, about the different exchange students and people of other nationalities who have attended my home church. I wonder if they struggled to build relationships at Shiloh the way I struggle here because of the language barrier. I wonder if they wanted to give up and not go back because it was so hard. I hope they didn't give up. I hope I didn't discourage anyone from feeling the love of Christ there. Fellowship with other believers is so important. We have a common bond that hopefully pulls us together, despite the language barrier. That bond is stronger than anything that should be able to keep us apart. It is the love of our heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.

I pray that this experience will make me stronger in my faith. But not only that, I pray that I will be sensitive to new faces at church, and help, rather than hinder, their fellowship with other believers. There are much bigger obstacles than a language barrier that keep people away from church, away from fellowship with other Christians. May we all look for ways to bridge those gaps and cross the boundaries to find fellowship with one another.

"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1:7