A Good Friday Story

Actually this happened yesterday -- "Good Thursday"(?) -- as told by Paz, one of our church members. Not only do all the stores, banks and offices close on Good Friday, an official holiday, but in general, everything shuts down by 1 p.m. on Thursday. Paz works in one of the major department stores in downtown Funchal, and yesterday morning a regular customer came in the shop. Normally, the lady wears bright colors, but she was dressed in black.

"Why are you in black?" Paz asked.

"Because of the death of Our Lord," the lady replied. "Jesus will die tomorrow."

"How many times do you think He dies?" Paz replied. "He died once for all, and rose from the dead and has been in heaven alive ever since!"

The customer almost went into shock at the sacrilege of suggesting that Jesus doesn't die every Good Friday and come back from the dead every Easter. She was scandalized at the thought. That's why she, like all the other pious women, wear mourning clothes; and every year at one of the parishes, there's a burial procession that takes the "body of the dead Savior" with the image of the Virgin close behind with a dagger sticking out of her left breast.

One year we even scheduled a service on Good Friday, with music...we later learned this was a scandal to some. For many followers of this tradition, I guess they have to get through a couple of days every year without a living Savior...for them Jesus is dead until Sunday morning. But for those of us like Paz, once Jesus has come into our hearts by faith, we know He's alive at every moment and never leaves us nor forsakes us.

Sunday, we will be presenting an Easter musical, "Victory", in English (in the morning service) and Portuguese (in the afternoon service). And all because He died once for all, to sanctify us forever! That is victory!

Add another country

Continuing the thought from the previous post, meet last Sunday's visitor, Thor Martin Edwardson...he's from Norway, as his name would indicate. Except that in reality he's Polish and Thor isn't the name he was born with. He and his wife are Baptists from Poland who moved to Norway 5 years ago. I think the name change had to do with finding a way to keep from having to always explain to people how to pronounce his Polish name.

We've had visitors from Norway in our services from time to time, but as far as I remember this is our first visitor from Poland. Thor's wife stayed with their baby, who was not feeling well, and due to a quirk in the automatic cash machines, they couldn't get cash on their bank card, so they were somewhat limited in their cash-based activities (taxis, for example). We had a good time of fellowship with Thor, who is active in a Baptist church near Oslo.

You've all heard of the North Pole. Well, we've had the blessing of meeting one.