I’m so excited. We booked tickets to Spokane for spring break. I’ll get to see Timothy, David, Esther … oh and everyone else. I mostly miss the little ones.

Also, we’ll get to go to Salem for Easter vigil, which is the BEST service at Salem EVER. No churches that we’ve gone to here in Monroe really match Salem’s worship, as far as a good mixture of beauty, warmth, and reverence go. There’s churches here that are ALL about making sure the service is anglo-catholic, others that are trying hard to be liturgical but worry about what the congregants will say if they do anything like add color to their worship, and others that kind of dismiss traditional liturgy as, well, too traditional. Salem is a breath of fresh air because they lovingly and carefully prepare each service and carry it out with so much genuine love for Christ and everyone around them that the worship service is so much more like a dance than it is like dancing lessons.

The coolest thing about the Easter vigil, though, is the drama of it all. It starts out dark (literally, the lights are off in the church) and gradually, light enters, grows, the liturgy becomes more and more eager, hardly able to contain itself, and then, near the end, there’s an explosion of light, colors, and Alleluias. It’s gotta be the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. The next day on Easter Sunday, everyone brings whatever bells they have and ring them during the singing of the hymns. It’s so great.

OK, gotta get back into my lenten mood…