Христос Воскiрес! Христос Воскiрес! (Khrystos Voskres - Chris is Risen).
This is the greeting you will get the entire week of Easter in Ukraine, and the response you hear is Воiстину Воскрес! (Voistynu Voskres! Indeed, He is risen!). This will be followed by 3 kisses to the cheeks, one each for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You will actually hear these greetings all over the East on Easter (the week, not the day). So why is it that we Americans call ourselves a Christian nation, and you never see such a thing outside a church?
As I had a discussion last night with my wife about why Jesus did the things he did, or didn't do other things, while on the earth, it kept coming to mind that I have seen more solid Christianity in Eastern Europe than in the good ol' USA. This from nations where people grew up not being allowed to celebrate their spirituality. It amazes me how well grounded my wife is in biblical matters, coming from a nation where such things were forbidden by law. It makes me think back to how strong the Church was in the "old" underground days, and how we might expect things to be before Christ returns to this earth again.
Ok, off the soapbox... and finishing up on this fine Easter day with a few lighter items before heading off to Church.
The other day I was chasing a purchase order around the company. It was misassigned to wrong division managers, prodcut managers, etc. all over the company. The couple times it ended up in my division, it quickly disappeared. Then a kindly Hispanic admin of the name Jesus stepped in and assured me he would resolve it.
As I was out and about, I read his email on my phone indicating he had fixed the problem. I copied him with a simple "Thank you, Jesus". A few moments later I spit Dr. Pepper all over my windshield as I saw a response from my administrator - "For a moment, I thought you were thanking God for fixing such a horrible issue."
Maybe I was...
And the prayer request for this week: I am waiting to hear from the doctors about recovery of my pituitary gland. What a wonderful miracle that would be on Easter week.
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