Purim Celebration

Reading the book of Esther together

This last week at Impact St. Mary’s (SMiCpact), we continued our study of Women of the Text by looking at the life of Esther and her courageous obedience to risk her life for the sake of saving her people. This Saturday was the annual festival of Purim where Jews across the world celebrate God rescuing his people through Esther. As part of our study, I invited the entire SMiCpact gang over to my apartment to celebrate Purim.

It was a great night of celebration and reading the Text together. We ate way more food than we probably should, read through the book of Esther, had great conversations about the Scripture, and made gift baskets. Part of a regular Purim celebration is to share what you have with neighbors and those who might not have all that they need.

During a previous weekly study, our students decided to use this idea as an opportunity to reach out to fellow students. We filled our baskets with some good study snacks and school supplies and wrote notes of encouragement to fellow students who needed to be reminded that God loves and cares for them. The girls took their baskets back to campus and the stories have begun to pour in about how other St. Mary’s ladies were encouraged by what seemed to them like a random act of kindness.

 “If I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16