Easter

Today is Easter Sunday - Resurrection Day! The most important day in the history of people! It was a good day - we had church this morning - sang familiar songs - "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" and "He Lives." I had forgotten how high 'He Lives' is - yikes! I was able to hit the high F, but it wasn't very fun - actually, I only tried on one verse, then I chickened out and went low - better for those listening!

One of the songs we did was "My Redeemer Lives" - that was a kind of new one for me - we sang it at camp - its a fun one, like that! There were a lot of people out today because of the long weekend and school break - many on the worship team had to work, so weren't there to sing unfortunately.

After church, I came home and rested - hoping for a nap, but never really got to sleep - but it was nice to close my eyes for awhile. We didn't have Sunday school today, so I got home about 11:30 or so. At 1:00 pm, we (my roommate Sara, Andrea (volunteer at DoH), Drew, Mercedes, and Kelsey (IMB Missionaries) went to the Allens for lunch - it was a very nice afternoon. After lunch we played Catch Phrase - it was fun.
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Cheryl's mom is not doing too well - she is having heart issues - an erratic heart beat that makes her light headed. She also told me that last Thursday she felt pain in her chest and nausea. She said she was feeling better today - just weak. She stayed in bed in her room all afternoon. The last time she had problems was right before Christmas - seems to come with the holidays. Hopefully, she'll regain her strength in the coming days. Cheryl seems quite worried about her.

I want to go back and let you know about our service on Thursday night. We started in the hall with a light supper and then communion. It was a nice time sitting around one large square together. There were about 60 people there including children. After the stuff in the hall, we gave people a lighted candle as they exited the hall to walk outside to the sanctuary. Inside the church, we had a cross at the front with 5 candles on it - at the hands, feet, head, and heart and no lights on, so as people came in and extinguished their candles, they only saw the lights on the cross up front. For the service, we did the Good Friday Service from "The Book of Uncommon Prayer" by Steve Case. It has readings from Psalms and also ones for Peter, Judas, and Pilate. As the readings are done, one of the candles from the cross is extinguished. There are also sound effects of the 30 pieces of silver and the hammering of the nails. I've done the service with the youth at Heritage and at Northminster - I think its a cool service - very contemplative. I hope that the folks at Troyeville liked it. I know I did. I was a bit disappointed that not many of the youth came, but I guess its hard for them to want to come to church during the week for a service.

On Friday night, Sara, Russell, Andrea and I went to see the Messiah being put on by the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Tony and Anne gave us their tickets since they were going out of town. It was a nice experience - I was a bit tired, so sometimes it was hard to keep my eyes open, but I did enjoy it. I especially enjoyed the selections that I had done as part of the choir at Centreville - it was neat to know I knew some of them.

Well, guess that's all for now. This week will probably drag by because I'm leaving for home a week from Monday - really really really looking forward to that!! I'm having a movie night for the youth on Friday and am opening the youth room for them to hang out on Tuesday. I like those days because its a great time to get to know them better.