If you do want to read more... here is the breakdown. =) After work Thursday I went over to Mike's house to pick up some tools to work on the wall mount. He was kind enough to let me borrow a drill, bit's, stud finder, and a level. Then on I went to my house. The actual setup of the thing really wasn't that hard. Chad came home during the middle of my setting it up and gave me a hand with it. Now on the wall it hangs... so far I really like how it turned out!
Then came Friday, it was actually a little chilly outside, but warmed up some after lunch. It was right around lunch time that I headed down to the Christensen house. Soon after arriving we left for Callaway Gardens to snap some Easter pictures. We walked around the "azalea bowl" and took quite a few different pictures. After we had done that for a while we headed over to a picnic area and had some lunch. Lunch was followed by a trip to the "butterfly house." It just so happened that on the way back from there that we saw a great place for a picture, and the last one we took ended up being the best! Soon after we headed back to the house, and took the scenic way home. From which I took this shot... it's actually about 15 pictures combined to do it.
Once we reached the house we had some time to hang out a bit, and eventually start up a game of Rook. We were having so much fun I think several times we lost track of the time. It ended up a very late game! But we all really had a lot of fun, I think we all slept a little bit later on Saturday too!
So, Saturday came quickly, or really was already on us, but the time to wake up came quickly. I headed over to their house again that day, and we did a little bit of practicing for the songs at the nursing home, and then left for it. It went well, I tried to play along with some of the songs that everybody was singing, although I made a few mistakes in that, including singing the 4
th verse when I was supposed to be singing the 3rd. =) Then all the kids came up and we all sung "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" followed by Ede and I playing on violin and guitar, "Come Thou Fount" and it seems like we are doing well on that one, though both of us had a slight mix up at one time or another during it, either way, we enjoyed doing it.
We went for pizza afterwards, which everyone enjoys, followed by the new movie "Loves Unending Legacy." We were originally scheduled to head over to Joyce and Ferrol's house but Anna got sick, and we had to cancel that. I had done a little extra cleaning that morning though, just in case something happened, and everyone ended up coming over to watch it at my house. I just wish I had more opportunities to have people over, I always enjoy entertaining.
So...(take a breath)... next came Sunday, where we had a morning service, but not an evening one, so that people could spend time with their families for Easter. It turned out to be a really fun day. I was invited back, for the 3rd time that weekend, (I hope I'm not becoming a pest) for Easter dinner, which was fantastic!!
A little while afterward everyone played a little bit of wiffle ball, followed by the story of the three trees, which I'm not going to go into here, but if you ask me about it sometime I will let you know. It really is a very good story about how someone can have a dream to do something great, and God may or may not have the same plans that we do, but can accomplish great things for us in ways we never imagined.
After the story, I went along with all of the kids outside to have what seemed to be an energy burning session. It started out with me throwing the football with Wesley and William, went to pushing kids on the swings, and finished up with us tying Wesley to a tree. Don't worry though, I didn't let him stay there long, I went back to get him, and as he was laughing most of the time, was having fun as well. He may have it in for his brothers and sisters now though!!
We also played Rook again that night. We didn't go near as long as we did Friday night though. The first couple games my team didn't to so well, we were down by about 100 points. We made quite the comeback after that though. I ended up taking the bid 3 times straight, and 1 of the times didn't even really want it, just didn't want the other team to get it. It seemed however, that the color I kept picking for trump during those 3 games, ended up being just the right color. All of the times Ede ended up with either 4 or 5 of that color, which for me to use for trump and her have that many is not very likely, and she had the rook all 3 times. William also ended up having good hands during the 3 games, which made it all the better. The cards were just falling our way that night.
Before we played cards though, we did something really cool. Like I had previously stated our evening service was canceled that day. So, all of the younger kids went up to bed, and the older ones stayed down. Ken prepared it, and we all sat preparing ourselves to have communion. It was actually really really cool, to have communion on Easter, with some of the friends that are closest to me. This do in remembrance of me, and that's truly what it was all about. We had about 10 minutes before everything was ready to just pray to God, and remember the work which Jesus accomplished for us, and it was just awesome, God is just awesome! That time that we had together God just really impressed upon me again the great work that He did! He came to earth, because He loved us. He freely and willingly sacrificed His body for us. He took all of our sins upon Himself, anything that we've ever done, anything that we still may do. He didn't just die and stay in the grave, but as we celebrated, He rose again, sits on the right hand of God, and is ever making intercession for us!!! What an amazing God we have!!! To show us such love when all we could offer was hatefulness and sin. Jesus came, and He changed our hearts, for which we can never even try to repay Him, but he doesn't require us to repay Him, it was a gift. The greatest gift that has ever been offered to the world!!!! And one day, He is coming again. Not only did He rise up, but He is preparing a place for me, to spend with Him in eternal glory, and he is coming again to bring His family home!!
John 14: 1-3 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believed in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
On Sunday we had our normal morning service, after which we went to a thing called "Sermon on the Mount." It is an analogy between training a horse and the Christian life. It's actually incredible with how well it is done. It was a ton of fun, but it was also long. I think we were there for about 4 hours!!!
