Happy Easter!
It is amazing how fast the time goes by, and I realize it's been a LONG time since I posted! I started a class at UALR about the time I last posted; perhaps I can use that as an excuse.
It is a German film class, and I have to write essays in German every week! Of course, that is the reason I took it, because I needed the practice in writing German. But it goes a bit slower now that it did 6 years ago when I was writing German every day!
It is the end of Easter day, and it has been a very good day. In fact, it has been a very good weekend. Yesterday my dear friends Dominik and Georgia went with me to visit David's grave. We took some flowers and garden tools and made a little flower bed between his headstone and his parents' headstone. The flowers are portulaca, also known as rose moss, something that tolerates heat and not much water. The area is full sun, and I don't plan to go out there and water them! The flowers are very colorful, and David loved them. I think he would be pleased, not least because I'm doing things a little differently than they way they've always been done there!
Today I went to sunrise service at my new church, Mosaic Church of Little Rock.
It was the first year that this group had a sunrise service. Pastor Mark was a bit uncertain about having scheduled it, but felt that he was being obedient. It was held on the corner of Asher and University, one of the busiest intersections in all of Little Rock. I told him I was sure that if he kept on doing this service, that whole corner would be full of people. Here is a picture of him leading us, with the rising sun lighting up the tree off to his left. Sunrise services were always a very special part of our Easter celebration, and so being a part of this one made me feel close to David.
It was the first year that this group had a sunrise service. Pastor Mark was a bit uncertain about having scheduled it, but felt that he was being obedient. It was held on the corner of Asher and University, one of the busiest intersections in all of Little Rock. I told him I was sure that if he kept on doing this service, that whole corner would be full of people. Here is a picture of him leading us, with the rising sun lighting up the tree off to his left. Sunrise services were always a very special part of our Easter celebration, and so being a part of this one made me feel close to David. After the sunrise service I helped set up for and serve a pancake breakfast! And it was a really great meal! My purpose in volunteering to help was to get to know more people in the church, and it had exactly that effect. Although we normally have two worship services, today we only had one, at 10:30. And it was a celebration! We had an easter egg hunt right in the middle of the service! We were on our feet most of the worship time. Well, the rest of the folks were. After standing at the sunrise service and standing to serve scrambled eggs, I had to sit down during part of the singing!
Mark preached about the power of Easter reaching down into our lives and giving us, not just a promise of life forever with God, but renewal and new life here in the world. He said that once you have experienced that, absolutely nothing is the same again. I know that to be true. And I also know that through the people in this church and in other ways as well, God has been giving me refreshment and renewal over the last several months. Today was a very special reminder of that.
I pray for such times of spiritual refreshment for all of you.
posted by Shirley Schuette @ 7:22 PM
0 Comments:
Kommentar veröffentlichen
<< Home