The day started off with a service in the morning. Our church choir was to perform, so we had to meet up earlier at church for a final rehearsal. When I walked in, I thought I saw Stephanie (a youth group friend) at the water cooler, and called out
"Good morning Steph.."
As she turned around, I realised it was her mum! Woops...
After we got into our gowns, we rehearsed a few parts of the song 'No Greater Love' before the bell rang and the service started.
The service started with a hymn, and the choir sang the first part of 'No Greater Love'. After, the pastor gave a sermon.
The choir sang the second part of the song, followed by the communion, and then the last part of the song.
We finished the service with some prayer. I was quite surprised at how there was quite a bit of English translation at the service today, and attendance seemed to be up on past years!
There were quite a few photographers taking photos around the place today. I think it's a sign the photography group at church are onto it!
I hope the choir sounded good though! I have to commend Ruth for playing the piano very well! The song is quite long and there's a lot to play! The soloists and Yangzi, the narrator were quite good too!
After the service, we all went to the hall for some hot cross buns. Our fellowship and a few members of the Jeshuan fellowship stayed behind for shared lunch before fellowship. Quite a few people forgot to bring food though, so those people who didn't bring anything contributed money to some extra food that Tim bought.
Aonghas, Grace and I (aka OFB) left early to do a quick practice with Joylynn and Gabrielle, who were leading worship for the combined fellowship. Aonghas was on piano, Grace on acoustic guitar and me on bass. I used over six plasters just to protect my fingers this time!
We did two songs, 'In Christ Alone' and 'Because He Lives', and we didn't actually sound too bad! Well...I hope we didn't. It did sound like everyone was singing though!
We then watched this documentary called Mama Heidi, about a lady called Heidi who had been doing missionary work in Mozambique. It was quite touching, seeing the difference she was making over there. It kinda inspires me to do something like that, but I sometimes wonder if I'd be strong enough!
Andrew, one of the guys at our church who spent three years in Taiwan and two months in Cambodia, then shared his experience with us, showing some pictures of his time in Cambodia. It was quite fascinating! He taught English there along with doing missionary work.
We finished the afternoon by sharing what we thought was the thing that caught our attention the most, and then writing a letter to Jesus/God and laying it by the large cross on stage.
This evening we've just been chilling out in front of the TV. For the first time in a long time, the whole family sat down and watched Police Academy together! Usually our dad hardly ever watches movies! It was quite nice just to do something together, as simple as that (even though my mum fell asleep halfway through it!).
To end our Good Friday, we made a late dash to Wendy's for dinner! Now that is a good Friday.
(Some photos courtesy of Anni Zhou)
