Our Holy Week was very full. Highland and 4 other large downtown churches in Abilene (First Baptist, St. Paul UMC, First Christian and First Central Pres.) participate in Holy Week lunches that rotate between each church throughout the week. The preaching minister at each of those speaks at one of the other church's luncheons. It's a wonderful unifying thing. Sheryl sang Redeemer at the Highland luncheon and it was wonderful! Then Wednesday night we had rehearsal with the choir for Easter Sunday and then did Highland's traditional "Journey With Jesus" which is basically an experiential walking through the stations of the cross. It's very spiritually formative for our kids at Highland (and adults as well).
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| Easter choir rehearsal--55 wonderful voices and hearts singing praise to the Lord! |
Thursday the kids and friends attended a celebration put on by the Hillis family with a lovely egg hunt in their back yard...
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| party moms |
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| Sam and his buddy Brighton |
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| Sheryl and our friend Stephanie Blair |
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| Ronda Hillis chased Brighton with a confetti egg! |
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| Sweet Haven Heflin |
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| Ella loves confetti eggs...can't you tell? |
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| Katie Blair |
Over the weekend we had Sam's first soccer game of the season. He was SO excited! He rocked it! He scored 2 of his team's (the Bluejays) 3 points. GO SAM!
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| GO BLUEJAYS!! |
After the game we went to another egg hunt at our dear friends, the Litton's, house. It was so much fun! They shut down an entire street and we hid eggs in 5 yards. The kids had a blast!
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| Kelly Litton read a book to the kids about the true meaning of Easter. We all cracked up because the demeanor of the Easter bunny looked very dejected. Kelly is so gifted with kids. Her mom was the children's minister at Oak Hills with Max Lucado for many years. She comes by it naturally! |
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| Jonathan was into it too. :) |
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| The Storments and Thomases. Sweet friends! |
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| Our friend Jennifer and Maddie |
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| Jennifer and Malachi |
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| I totally busted the Easter Bunny as he was stealing some candy...BAD Easter Bunny! |
All this happened BEFORE Sunday! By the time Sunday came we were so pumped it was impossible to contain. It was a POWERFUL morning! The choir sang, Val did "Arise My Love", Sheryl sang "Redeemer", Jonathan preached a sermon that knocked it out of the park. It was a great day! And in a way that could only be Highland...at second service an African woman (beautiful spirit) who had experienced so much grief over the last few years and who now is experiencing the joy of Jesus felt moved to dance during "This Is How We Overcome". She danced up and down the 2 center aisles. It was beautiful. All the while, one of our Freedom Fellowship members was rocking out on the front row wearing bunny ears. I'm telling you. Only Highland. LOVE IT!
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| An amazing morning with an awesome worship choir |
Between services Highland has a tradition of having a Resurrection party. Everyone fellowships and celebrates together. It was great!
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| Sam wanted a tie and belt for Easter...his first of both! He looked so handsome! |
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| I love this of Maddie. She is getting SO old and even more and more gorgeous every day. |
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| I love that Ella is still in the in-between phase of loving little girl stuff but embracing her big girl self. She looked smashing on Easter! |
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| This was at the Resurrection party between services |
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| My life-long sister/friend Brooke Lorenz Nichols and her son and my friend Conner |
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| Brooke and Brady Nichols--family to us |
After church we went to my mom's for Easter lunch along with several college students who stayed to sing in the choir and weren't able to go home and be with their own families. It was a great afternoon! The guys all hid eggs for our kids to find and then Brian brought a bean bag toss game and we played that until everyone crashed. A wonderful afternoon!
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| The kids are ready to hunt eggs in my mom's back yard |
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| My intern, Trey Wrape (pronounced "rap") is the guy sitting in front in the blue shirt. He has been an incredible blessing to me this year! I feel so blessed to have him and thankful that he gave up Easter with his family in Dallas to stay and help all the Easter festivities at Highland happen easily. Thanks, Trey! |
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| The bean bag toss! |
Happy Easter, everyone! Remember, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is living in YOU!
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