Invitation Into Passover...a Practical Guide for Hosting a Seder: Companion to Finding the Afikoman

When John and Christie were married in 1974, the fact that Christie was a Gentile and John was Jewish, was not an issue to them. It was, however, an issue to John’s parents who were Holocaust survivors and had lost all their family in Nazi Germany. They did not want their son marrying a Gentile girl that would lead him away from his Jewish faith. While Christie assured them that she had no religious affiliation that would persuade him contrary to their beliefs, God had other plans. One year later, John and Christie became Christians. Now that her mother-in-law’s worse fear had come true, Christie decided to try to soften the blow of their conversion by acting interested in what they believed. At her first Passover celebration with John’s family in 1976, Christie had a divine encounter that took her completely by surprise. She found Jesus hidden in an ancient ceremony within the Passover called “Yahatz”, or “breaking” the afikoman. After that night, with an insatiable hunger to know Jesus, she began her long journey of looking for the revelation of Jesus and God’s heart in all the Biblical feasts. In her two books, Finding the Afikoman: encountering Jesus in the spring feasts and Watching and Waiting: encountering Jesus in the fall feasts, Christie shares personal stories and encounters, mostly from her journals that span over four decades. Her discoveries will broaden your understanding of scripture from their Jewish perspective, and reveal to you the family and culture that Romans 11 says that you have been grafted into. In this latest book, Invitation into Passover: a practical guide for hosting a Seder, Christie is answering a question many have asked her after reading her books: “ How do we host a Passover Seder?” This companion guide to Finding the Afikoman is her attempt to teach you how.

Christie's desire is to share with you the ways she and John have celebrated Passover over the years with family and friends. Her goal is to give you everything you need to host a Seder in practical, attainable, and life-giving ways. In Part 1, she gives motivation and an overview of what she believes the heart of a Passover celebration is about, as well as casting a vision for the direction and order of your Seder experience. In Part 2, she takes each section of the Seder and shares with you how she has interpreted them, giving suggestions of themes you may or may not want to highlight. In Part 3, she includes all the practical steps to hosting a Seder, such as, timelines, table preparation, menu planning and much more! Finally, the Appendixes include recipes, a sample Haggadah, as well as a personal Haggadah which can be downloaded. She also includes supplemental material to help educate you on the various aspects of a Passover Seder. This guide is meant to “jump start” you into finding your own unique interpretation of the redemptive love story found in the spring feasts.