He is risen indeed

Easter Sunday in Oman. I’m just going to call this the year of the non-holiday because ever since we left the states back in December I have stumbled through all the special days: Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s Day (and we were even in America for that one), St. Patrick's Day, and now Easter week. I’m sure it has to do with hardly knowing what month we’re in since our weather isn’t “seasonally appropriate” to what we’re used to (but I’m not complaining about 90 degrees in April – it’s lovely). Anyway, I forget the holiday is coming and then I remember almost after the fact, “Hey, it’s _____ today!”

That’s the way Easter snuck up on me. It was only when we got to church on Friday morning (virtual Sunday) and it was Good Friday that it really registered that Easter was two days away. And here since Sunday is a normal work day, it was certainly not a “normal” Easter.


We went to our church’s sunrise service at 5:30 am. There were several other congregations meeting on the grounds in different areas/halls at the same time (or even earlier!)


All these seats were filled by the end. There were at least 500 people at the service we attended.


Watching the sunrise – I could have used a few more hours of sleep, especially since this cute thing is getting two new teeth and teething and sleeping don’t exactly go together.


But at least I was functioning better than Bob, who spent most of the service slumped in Josh’s lap and immediately went back to bed when we got home at 7am.


Everyone lining up to take communion at the end of the service. It’s the first time I’ve ever taken communion on Easter morning, since we usually have the somber communion service on Good Friday and then the celebration on Sunday morning.

Church was nice. It was fun to see all the Indian women dressed in their beautiful saris and it was impressive to see how many people came to church before heading to work.

We were not those people. We went home and everyone fell asleep for a few hours. The Chartiers certainly aren’t morning people, but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate Easter in Oman.