Halloween Party!

For Halloween last weekend, we threw our first party in our new place! We invited our small groups, and had an open invitation to our church's young adult ministry -- we ended up having about twenty people all told, in varying degrees of costumed festivity. :)

It's so fun hosting our small group friends. Everyone always brings a ton of food, and even though I tell myself it'll be different this time, I always end up making too much myself, and we have tons of leftovers afterwards... But it's all good, because the leftovers got to make guest appearances at a birthday party on Sunday, on the PEF fall break service trip this week, and at small group on Wednesday... It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Funny story about Halloween candy... Apparently, if you wait until Halloween itself, and you go to Sam's Club to buy your candy, the only option you'll have left is the giant candy bar fundraising pack. You know, the kind that band kids would walk around with in order to raise money for new uniforms every year? So this year, we were the awesome apartment giving out full-size candy bars (and real ones, too, no off-brand weird stuff for us, no sir!. Or at least, we would have been, if we didn't live in an apartment complex where you have to be buzzed in to enter the front door... Sadly, no children knocked on our door on Saturday.

But at least we had a great group of friends to hang out with!


Me and Eggi's first Halloween costume; Tae and Jeff looking cute, as always!


John as Luther, ready to nail the 95 theses to the Wittenberg church doors


Granstedts and Lieus (and our massive bowl of ridiculously large candy bars)


Some of the food (two other countertops of drinks and snacks!)


Pumpkin carving on our porch!
(This was Andrew's first jack-o-lantern!)


Lis, Milla and Krista -- Krista was amazingly fast at pumpkin carving!


Carrie and Matt as Ms. Frizz and Bill Nye the Science Guy
(Matt had just passed his generals -- so they baked a pumpkin pie from scratch to celebrate!
And by "from scratch," I mean "roasted the pumpkin, and grated cinnamon sticks"...)


Guys vs. girls Taboo!


Andrew is super competitive...


...and so is Matt, in his own way...

We had so much fun having all of you over for the holiday festivities! Both YAC and our small groups are really thriving this year, and we really loved having everyone over. Looking forward to more fun times with this awesome group of friends!

For the full set of Halloween photos, check out this SmugMug gallery.

YAC is back!

Now that the summer is over, people are back in town, and the church ministry year has started, Young Adult Connections is back up and running!

We had a kickoff brunch a couple Sundays ago, at the home of Tim and Lori Bentch -- tons of good food, some structured time of discussing and planning for the year, and a lot of great time just hanging out with fun people. :)


Carrie helping to prep desserts


Mary, Thomas, Tim and David -- part of the indoor half of the group


And the other half of the group eating outside


Tim, Dave and Phil


Lovely ladies --Lis, Carrie, Milla and Christina

And then the following Sunday (last week), Phil and Dave hosted a YAC brunch of their own after church. The invitation said that soup would be served, and that we could bring side dishes or desserts if we wanted to contribute.

And wow, was soup ever served.

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of this event, but there were probably about 20 people there, and four different kinds of amazing homemade soup -- sweet potato, chicken and white bean, and other scrumptious deliciousness. Dave is a gourmet, and his roommate Phil is certainly no slouch in the kitchen... I feel like I say this all the time, and it's becoming a bit of a cliche, but really, good times were had by all. :)

And finally, this coming Saturday, David and I are hosting a YAC Halloween party. We'll be sure to take tons of pictures!

It's just so wonderful to see this ministry flourishing and growing. Every single time we throw an event, we get a number of newcomers who express interest in joining a small group and being included on the YAC email list. (We've started a whole new small group for young professionals in the area, and we're planning to start another grad student group this fall.) And it's also really exciting to see others stepping up and planning/hosting events -- with the Halloween party, it'll be three YAC events in four weeks, only one of which David and I had primarily responsibility for. There has always been a felt need in this demographic for community -- and we're so thankful to have so many great people coming alongside us to help provide that community!

Good Friday and Easter photos

It's been a busy, busy week... But now that we've got some breathing room, it's definitely time to post some photos from last weekend's events.

Every year for Good Friday and Easter (except last year, when Easter fell over spring break...), the evangelical fellowships on campus come together for a weekend of services commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's always such a beautiful weekend -- I love each and every one of these events.

Good Friday Service
On Friday night, we all gathered in the Rockefeller Common Room for the annual Good Friday service. It's a more somber service, focusing specifically on the crucifixion -- which is, honestly, something that I don't meditate on often enough.

The service is full of beautiful music...




...readings from scripture that walk you through the last hours leading up to the crucifixion...

...and a homily. This year, we had Ross Wagner, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and an elder at Westerly, who spoke on the shame that was borne by Jesus on the cross.

Tons of people came out to the service, including several grad students from our small groups -- it was so good to worship with all of you!





Easter Sunrise Service
At 6:30am on Easter Sunday morning, as the sun was rising over campus, about 50 of us gathered for a sunrise service on Frist South Lawn.

The service began with a trumpet call to worship...

...and continued with singing...

...readings from Scripture telling the story of Christ's resurrection and our resultant eternal hope...

...and communion.

A surprising number of students were there, despite the early hour, and a surprising number of women were wearing pretty Easter dresses, despite the chill of the morning!



And then we all headed away from the sunrise, on to the baptism service.

Easter Baptism Service
Eight of our brothers and sisters were baptized on Easter Sunday -- praise God!

Bill was giving final instructions to the eight about to be baptized as the rest of us filed in...

...and here's a shot of about half of the crowd that gathered to witness the baptisms. There were so many people there to support their brothers and sisters!

Bill led off with a short talk on the call to baptism, and the importance of this sacrament in the Christian life.

Then each of the eight being baptized gave testimony to the work God has done in their lives...

...the three leaders of PEF and Manna entered the pool...

...and each of the eight were baptized in turn.

Congratulations, Andrew, Alan, Ivy, Sumin, Jeff, Eric, Beza, and Karin!

Easter Luncheon at the Beesons'
And then, we capped off our weekend of Easter celebrations at the home of John and Angel Beeson. They invited tons of people from Westerly into their home for a fabulous luncheon spread, and for Easter egg fun!

We got to hang out with dear friends...


...and then filled plastic Easter eggs with candy and hid them for the little kids...

...who then had a blast running around the yard finding them all!




Thank you, Beesons, for a wonderful Easter afternoon!

So that was our Easter weekend! Hope yours was as blessed and refreshing!