May 2001 We began our Easter meetings this year with a Passover meal. This took us back into the Old Testament days when God delivered the Jews out of the land of Egypt—the Passover meal is their celebration and remembrance of that great event. The relevance of this to Christians is that it was this meal that brought together Jesus and his disciples in the upper room for the Last Supper, when what we call the Communion Service was introduced by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our evening, was led by Geoff and Jenny Marshal, they work now for an organisation involved with the Jewish people, but Geoff used to work as a Home Evangelist, and would often be seen knocking doors in the village. The meal itself was very simple but each item of food had a symbolic meaning. The bitter herbs spoke of their servitude as slaves, the salt water spoke of the tears they cried and the Marzah - unleavened bread - reminded them of the haste with which they left Egypt. During the evening the participants drink four cups of wine (grape juice for us) one of which is called the Cup of Redemption, (Scott very helpfully showed how these items formed the basis of the communion service when we break bread and drink wine in remembrance of Jesus and his death upon the cross. I must admit that I found some of the activities somewhat strange, for example, dipping your finger in the wine and flicking the drops onto the floor whilst repeating in order the names of the plagues that fell on Egypt. Perhaps I'm a bit self-conscious but I found it difficult to do that. The most moving part of the evening for me was when we sang a hymn that I learned as a child going to church (St Mary's) with my father in Brynmawr. There is a green hill far away, outside a city wall, Where the dear Lord was crucified who died to save us all. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. 0 dearly, dearly has he loved, and we must love him too, And trust in His redeeming blood, and try His works to do Undoubtedly the most stirring part of the evening was the testimony of a converted Jewess. Coming from a difficult home she delved into and dabbled with all sorts of evil and occult practices until she met a Christian who showed her the reality of the love of Christ that changed her life forever. Being also an actress she told her story in a most dramatic manner. EddieJones (Pastor).