Holy week in review

     In years past I (Josh) have found it fun to web log about the things I think about during Holy Week. This year, with two kids in early childhood, I am hardly able to think. I can't seem to write these things down with the frequency I used to. But I have been enjoying the family and this season in the church calendar.
      On Palm Sunday we went to worship at our church, and it was fun and exciting. We did the palm branch waving and singing. There was a new play written by a friend. Jedidiah has been asking good questions about this part of the Jesus story.
     At night Jedi and I read before he goes to sleep, and we talked about the crowd and the donkey Jesus sat on instead of a hero's steed.
     On Tuesday we had a Passover Seder at our friends house next door. Our family and two other families from this building went to Rob and Julie's. We all cooked some parts of the meal. We lit candles and tasted the salty and bitter and sweet. We broke bread and Jedidiah went looking for the missing piece. I love the Seder because it is a celebration that is physically significant, and not just information about beliefs. The children have a role to play.
     On Friday our church had a service, and we attempted to go to it, but the kids weren't in to sitting through a mournful thing, so we all were in the nursery. And then we went home.
Then there was the service this morning.
I love this church!
Songs all our own, and dances, and people really happy about Jesus.
     After the usual components of a church service we have a sharing time. This morning there were at least two people with mental or psychiatric disabilities who needed to share, and they did. Ours is a church for the broken, the simple, the needy. These people weren't put in the back row - they became a part of the Easter service. That seems just right.
I'll put some video up with the dances, but it's impossible to video the emotional charge of the worship.
     We went to a potluck lunch at our friends' house (a communal household here with about 9 young people who live there). They'd invited a ton of people. I imagine there were over thirty people eating together. The kids had a place to be and we could all relax and enjoy this church community. The people in the household had agreed together to fast from alcohol for Lent, and so they broke the fast together.
I am still really happy to live here!