18 April 2006 ~ 3 Comments

Easter Passed

Wow, what a weekend. A lot happened this past weekend. Quick recap:

GOOD FRIDAY
Awesome service. This really is one of the coolest services we have all year in my opinion. How rad to be able to focus on the death of Christ and the reality of it’s impact on our lives in such a special way once a year. As is the tradition for this service, I love watching people all over the room nailing their sins into the crosses. I love to hear the sounds of the nails being driven into the wood to the backdrop of worship. I love tasting the bread and reflecting on Christs death during a time of communion with God. Good stuff.

EASTER EGG HUNT
Yeah, Saturday was an early morning. Everything got set up and ready to go for our community Easter egg hunt and free pancake breakfast. Bounce houses, game boths, the Easter Bunny, and the mascot for the Long Beach Armada baseball team. It was my job to emcee the morning, playing tunes and constantly inviting people to join us the next morning for Easter services. The morning really was a blast!

Afterward, I had to jump right into getting together lots of last minute details for our Easter rehearsal on Saturday night at Artesia High School. The look team created an AWESOME look in that room, and then the worship/drama/dance/technical teams showed up for a late night rehearsal to make sure everything went smoothly for the next morning. Luckily, the janitor had a late night which allowed me to stay late to be sure that lighting plots got finished and the overflow room got setup and operational.

EASTER CELEBRATION SERVICES
Over 700 people showed up for Easter services! The morning went over awesome. For those of you who weren’t able to join us (or just don’t live anywhere near Long Beach for that matter), it was probably a lot different than any other Easter service you’ve ever been to. We actually staged the service as a funeral for Jesus, with a casket, flowers, and eulogies. Of course the climax of the morning was the discovery that there was no body in the casket and the realization of what the resurrection could mean in our own lives. It went over really pretty smoothly and the tear down team did an awesome job of getting us out of there a little earlier than I expected. Now there’s just a lot of extra stuff that needs to be taken off the trailer this week. Anybody have some extra time this week? :)

For more info and some great pics, check out Dave’s blog.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with the in-laws at our place – kinda. Really I pretty much went comatose once I got home. Luckily my father-in-law took a quick nap, too, so I didn’t feel too rude. It was a long week for lots of people and all the work paid off. I owe HUGE THANKS to lots of people who helped us out tons! There were so many that I won’t even start naming them all cause I’ll inevitably leave out some really important person. You all know who you are. Thank you all so much for all the work you put in to make these events impactful and successful. I heard about so many people walking out of the service touched and just pumped, and none of that would be possible without you guys!

That’s it for now. Today was mostly a day of rest and recovery – with the exception of class – and tomorrow it’s back to work to get ready for this coming Sunday and our new series – The Office: Imagine a Wonderful Workplace. Goodnight.

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