Any Place I Hang My Hat: Easter!

Easter weekend was amazing! On Saturday, Tim and I threw a birthday party for our friend, Jackie. We made chili, cornbread, macaroni & cheese, and cake- a luxurious spread of Western foods that are rare here in Korea! Some of our friends came over to help us celebrate, and we had so much fun hanging out with everyone. Jackie has been a great friend this year, and really such an answer to prayer. I am so thankful for her, so it was great to have a night to celebrate her! One of the best parts of the night was due to a flower-shaped, musical birthday candle that I bought to try. It is my new favorite thing! Here's how it worked. To start out, a group of 8 candles were in the shape of an unblossomed flower in the middle of the cake. We lit the middle of the flower, as the directions said, and a huge flame ignited. Needless to say, I was a little worried. Then, after a few minutes, the candle exploded into a sparkler display (which brought about screams from all the girls), and the flower blossomed into a beautiful flower, with a candle on each petal. Faintly, we could hear that it was playing "Happy Birthday" too! It was so great! Easily, the best $2 I have ever spent! Anyway, Jackie felt loved, and everyone had fun, so the night was a success. :)

Sunday was our Easter service at church that we had a part in. Tim, me, and our friends Jackie, Matt, Collin, and Melissa did monologues to show the different perspectives of the crucifixion and resurrection. I was Mary Magdalene, Tim was Thomas, and there was also Peter, a soldier, one of the crowd, and an elder. We all sat in different parts of the church, and then walked up to the cross during our monologues. We each also brought something to the cross that our character would sacrifice. It was a really powerful group of monologues, and it started the service in a meaningful, reflective way. I was really proud of all of us, since we only had a week to memorize and prepare the monologues. And Tim did an amazing job! Of course, he's good at everything he does, so I'm not surprised. :) But I wish you could have seen it. Tim and I were also on the worship team, but unfortunately, I was sick with a sinus infection and barely had a singing voice. That was really disappointing to me. But the service was very worshipful and celebratory. Our church has this tradition of decorating the cross with flowers on Easter. They have this green wire covering the cross, and everyone comes up and covers the cross in all kinds of flowers during the worship time. When it was all decorated, it was so beautiful! And such a great symbol of new life! After church, we had a potluck lunch, and really great fellowship time. Have I mentioned how much we love our church and our friends?! :)

Adorable Jackie (Jaxy as I call her) and the amazing fire spectacle on her cake!