Happy Earth Day!

Philly Phun

I had a refreshing weekend visiting friends in Philly. After a heavy Holy Week, I decided I needed a mini-break, since I'm not going home for a long vacation until the end of May. So I took a few days and headed "home" to the beautiful area of Philly that the seminary is located in. I stayed at a friend's house, slept in and relaxed, wandered around the shops in the area (including Ten Thousand Villages and a local yarn store), ran on my favorite trail, got some fabulous deals at the seminary bookstore, played bocce ball (for the first time ever, and discovered I'm pretty good), and went to a Phillies game. The weather was gorgeous and was the icing on the cake of a lot of fun with friends.

He is risen!

Happy Easter (and spring) to all! Christ is risen! Alleluia!

This was my first time really experiencing Holy Week as someone in pastoral ministry. When I worked as a youth director I didn't really have any extra responsibilities during Holy Week so I was still able to reflect and worship as I had every other year. This year was a little different. But I was determined to still be able to observe Holy Week and worship as I usually would as much as possible. It was a little difficult, because I did have to preach on Maundy Thursday and had many other responsibilities for worship leadership. I knew I would likely be putting in more than 40 hours, so I made sure to take time for myself, and worked a little less during time slots I normally would, because of all the extra time at church toward the end of the week. I think I was pretty successful at performing my leadership tasks and still being able to reflect on the meaning of the days and worship. I hope, whether you had tasks to do or not, that you were able to do the same!