Good tidings of great joy

And behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy!

Wait, wait, that’s the wrong story.  That’s what we celebrate at Christmas, not Easter!  

But if we really think about it . . . we celebrate good tidings of great joy at Christmas because that’s where we see a huge turning point in the story of the world.  But Christmas would lose its meaning without Easter.  We celebrate the birth of a baby at Christmas; it’s the fact that He conquered death that we celebrate at Easter.  And that is what makes His life and death good news with great joy.  He has defeated death and we can live in victory in Him, knowing that death and sin and all those things no longer have power over us. And that also means that we can become friends with God again, for forever.  If that’s not good tidings of great joy, I don’t know what is.  Happy Easter!

I also have other, smaller, news that has brought my heart great joy this last week, and much of it circles around tickets and plans.  Over the past three years, I’ve rarely had plans for more than a few months in the future, and over the last week plans have come together for the next few months.  That in and of itself is a lovely feeling, but even better is that they are exciting plans that make my heart sing:

1. Next week I plan to be in southern Senegal to teach a team there about discourse analysis – why it’s important and how understanding how the language works can make their translation and teaching more understandable.  Pray for me as I prepare to teach all that in French. (I have a lot of vocab to learn this week!)
2. I also just got a ticket to the US to be maid of honor in a good friend’s wedding.  How fun!
3. And then, drumroll please, after the US, I get to go to My Country!  I only have permission to be there for a short while, but even a short while is so much more wonderful than nothing.  

So see?  Over the next few months, I get to see friends and family, and then friends who have become family.  Our God is so good.

But could you pray for me? Thanks so much!  You are another source of great joy, knowing that you stand beside me and are, as the song says, “praying me through.”  So thank you!