A Glorious Passover

In five days I felt like Christ Jesus my Lord, as if risen from the dead. Last Tuesday I was at death's throes, and very few would blink an eye if I were left to die. But in the end, I snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. Perhaps those who wanted me dead had to see what the Lord was doing through His servant. For the first time in the church's history, we had big crowds on Good Friday and even more yesterday on Resurrection Sunday. Who says the pastor makes no difference? Pastors are lowly in our contexts, but I will not allow others to put me down, as if left to die. Even in death, God raises us up again. God put up a show. No one expected that every seat would be taken on Good Friday. Normally in our church, when it is long weekend, people return to their villages. Many tribal folks have attachments to their villages, and they take every opportunity to return to their hometowns or villages.

The elder spoke with me in astonishment, "wah..many people today". I simply replied, "there is no shortage of people in Kota Kinabalu". After a glorious Friday, again people would think Sunday would be a less celebratory event or would be more of an anticlimax. But it turned out to be otherwise with even more people turning up and the elder spoke with me again, "we need to add another air conditioning unit" and I just nodded to him. 

The dancers had drops of sweat in their foreheads which they wiped away from time to time, all 6 dancers in all in a small one unit shoplot. Again, even on Saturday I had to overcome opposition because the rehearsal was getting a bit longer than usual. The youths started late because the worship leader, among few youths who own a vehicle had to pick up our musicians, some of whom would take Grab to come to the rehearsal. 

Then, I asked the dancers to be more creative since it was Resurrection Sunday and that took another 15 minutes, just practising the Fan Dance for the chorus (Dengan SayapMu - With Your Wings, O God"). One person was unhappy because he thought the rehearsal went over time but I was patient. I remember what I said on Friday, "if we were asked to walk a mile, we would go for two" and it was nothing for the youths to stay on for another 30 minutes for the sake of the worship service. 

Yesterday was glorious because God was present. I started to weep during the first song. The Lord knew what I had to go through in the past 5 or 6 days, preparing for the double Passover Services, preaching in them, and overseeing every thing else. But the attendance gave a lift to everyone present, especially the veterans and seniors because they had never seen something like what transpired during this Passover weekend by the grace of God.