not just another easter sunday

We sang all my favorite Easter hymns at church today. We celebrated, we listened to stories of changed lives, and we ate and drank in remembrance of Him. It was a special day for this, and, I admit, I cried through most of it. What can I say—I am my mother's daughter.

The rest of the day was spent experiencing a small piece of what heaven may be like: in community, gathered around a table with families and friends. It was brunch in Brooklyn with some of the sweetest people I know in this city. And after a short rest in the afternoon, that led straight into a potluck dinner at a wonderful neighbor friend's house, also with some of the sweetest people I know. It was a good, full day and for no reason that I actually deserve.

Those are the kind that make you most thankful.

homemade photo booth

I am really, really into photo booths these days. They are just so darn fun, I'm not sure how anyone couldn't be into them. I made a homemade "photo booth" for the kiddos at VBS last week, and - as I suspected - I'm pretty sure I had 10x more fun than they did. Some were excited, some appeased me and at least had their photo made, and some were just short of screaming bloodymurder. But as you can see, we adults had a great time! Thanks for all the help (ahem, Maggie, Maggie and Bethany) for making this day run semi-smoothly.

"ask me a question"

Tonight was the second night of Redeemer's Open House for the new home of Redeemer West Side's congregation and building on W83rd Street. For those of you who don't live in New York, this is a pretty big deal. Not only is every inch of space you can barely-call-your-own extremely tee-niny anyway, it's rare to even be able to legitimately call a place your own (aka, own it). Redeemer's new very-own building that has been in the works for years and years is finally opening. There were open houses last night and tonight and the first church service(s) will be this Sunday!

I volunteered with the children's ministry to help people check in and get acquainted with the new very-hi-tech system for registering. (There is mostly sarcasm in that statement, but some seriousness. It's very hi-tech for Redeemer.) In return for our volunteer services, they kindly required that we wear these buttons as big as my face that said "Ask Me a Question!" Very lovely.

In Tim Keller's brief address to the congregation and guests tonight, he reminded us of the days when Redeemer met on Sunday afternoons in someone's apartment on East 73rd Street in 1989. In those days no one was talking of a superstar pastor of a church with 5,000+ attendees every week. This very blessed church sure has come a long way! Psalm 127:1 is mighty powerful.

[by the way, I took most of these pictures from Bethany!]