Eid (It's pronounced I-eed)

Parental Advisory! This is not for those with weak stomaches!

Today was the first day of a 4 day celebration for our cousins. This is the Eid kabeer, or the big holiday. They sacr:fice a lamb, goat, or cow to remind them of the story in their book about Ibrahim and Ishmael. It is similar to ours excpet they change the name of the son. They focus more on the part of Ibrahim submitting to the Father and not the blood. That is the main part of the story, but the blood is what Dad requires for tresspasses. They don't understand that.




First we woke up at 5:30am to go to an area of town that would be crowded with folks pr-ying in the streets. We wanted to see this and see the culture. There were maybe 100,000 folks there.

After that we went walking around to try and see more of the culture. The sacr:fices. We were able to see a lamb and a cow get sacr:ficed. Pretty CRAZY. They slit there throats and just let them lie there till they are deceased. Almost like a cheesy scary movie except this was real. I won't go into all the details, but just know that this thing was alive and after a minute or two wasn't anymore. Then they skinned them to prepare for cutting up. They give a third to the poor, give a third to their neighbors, and eat the other third. There is no telling how many lambs and cows got slaughtered today.

So today will be a big feast and then the next three days they will visit family and friends. Hopefully we can have opportunities to talk with them about this and share about THE sacr:fice.

Inspite this was tough to see, it is a subtle reminder of the price that the Son paid for us. We don't see things like that back home(blood running through the streets), but maybe we need to be reminded of the price that Dad accepts, or accepted once and for all. Ask for our cousins to understand grace and blood and turn from works.