Happy Easter

Dear Friends and Family,

This is just a little Easter message from a part of the world where nobody has ever heard of an Easter Bunny or Easter eggs.

Have you ever truly contemplated the awesome, almost unthinkable thing that Jesus volunteered to do when He agreed to take upon Himself the sins of the world, to allow Himself to be crucified? Raising Himself up in resurrection had to be the easy part, although I don't really have any way of knowing that. He had to know that his time in the Garden of Gethsemane and the events leading up to His crucifiction would be excruciatingly difficult and yet I wonder if even He knew just how hard it would be. The fact that He asked his Father three times in the Garden if the cup could be taken from his lips and on the cross pleaded: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" suggests that the experience may have been beyond that which even He had anticipated.

Nevertheless, He didn't quit, He didn't run, He didn't call down ten legions of rescuing angels. And even though, from the point of view of the mob, the frightening scene was centered upon this man called Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus himself was focused on you and I, on providing the way for us to be forgiven for the sins which we could never hope to repay on our own, on preparing the way for us return to our Heavenly Father, and upon the more immediate safety of those around Him. To the mob He said: "Let these go their way." He restored the ear of the high priest's servant. He was even concerned for the His persecutors when He said from the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." To one of the two men crucified on either side of him He said: "Today I will see thee in Paradise." And when He saw His mother and His disciple John standing beneath him, He said to his mother: "Woman, behold thy son!" and to John: "Behold, your mother" thus ensuring that she would be looked after for the remainder of her life. Only then did He commend His spirit to the Father and give up the ghost.

The only way we can repay Jesus for the wonderful gift which He gave to us was expressed most eloquently to me by Billy Johnson, the first person to be baptized in Cape Coast, the first branch president and organizer of the first ten congregations. He said: "All of the gold in the world, all of the diamonds, all of the silver, and all of the money can never repay the Lord for for sending the missionaries to Ghana. The only way we can repay this is to live the commandments of the Lord to the best of our abilities."

We love you and miss you very, very much.

Happy Easter!
Elder & Sister Turner