Are you guys ready for the best music related Easter / Resurrection Sunday joke that I've ever seen? Here you go. When I first saw it, I was laughing till I cried. Still makes me giggle to this day. Aaaaaanyhoo, I hope you all had a lovely week? Got to spend it with family? Praise the Lord for all of His wonders, chief among them that He paid the ultimate price for us because He loves us so much and wants to give us the chance to be with him in eternity! Our God is good!
We had a few fun events leading UP to Easter / Resurrection Sunday, and I actually remembered to take pictures lol So without further ado, let's go!~
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Mickey + GF Visit
So, one of the fun things about being the long-standing members of CCF that are STILL in Carbondale is that when they get the chance to, we actually have alumni come back to visit us. This was exactly what happened this past Friday with (formerly known as) the Piano Prince, Mickey!! He was in town for a concert (which my darling, adorable mother, in her 5 foot almost no inches glory chewed him out for) Saturday evening, and to our horror, didn't tell us beforehand so we had no way of being able to go (CCF meeting is normally Saturday evening).
We settled for the next best thing which was having him and his girlfriend (who came with) over to our house for dinner. Sure, that kinda means we didn't share him, but oh well. We get first pick. lol
mandatory group picture
Mum made Taiwanese beef noodles (since the two of them are Taiwanese)
Mickey and gf (Carol)
All in, they spent like...5 hours at our house, only leaving close to midnight in true "I'm going over to the Lohs' for dinner" fashion lol
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CCF has had a grand total of TWO pastors in its lifetime, starting with Pastor Juan who is basically my second dad and for the past several years, Pastor Bruce who is basically my American dad. His birthday was this past Monday, so we celebrated early at CCF. Mum wanted to shake things up a bit and worked with the students to make an American dinner for him! Don't tell Mum, but I think he might actually have preferred the Chinese food (it's his one chance a week to get the authentic stuff, after all!)... *sshhhhh*
Pastor Bruce looking over the spread
Mum introducing said spread
Minnie and Helen collaborated to make the cheesecakes for dessert and P. Bruce got to pick one of the three they made to take home as his birthday cake
mandatory group picture lol
We all signed a birthday card for him and with some help of other alumni all over the US and China, I also edited / made a video birthday card for him. With his permission, I might share it here. We shall see :) Will update this post if yes.
Easter Service
Originally, we were going to have Missions / International Sunday for Easter, but the leadership got a word from the Lord that we should actually bump that back to April 15th (so keep an eye out for THAT update) and have a combined service with a couple other ministries in town (Lakeland Baptist Church + IMPACT Student Ministries) instead as a sign of unity of the church under Christ. I thought it was a great idea and it's also good to get the bigger picture of the body of Christ once in a while. :)
I wasn't part of the worship team this week, but I was part of the choir (I had to ask, since I can technically sing both parts, and was told to sing alto this time around to give them a big of a boost in the lower range). I was also asked at the last minute to play the tambourine for "Jesus is Alive", which was fun, but I also got a lot of weird looks from some people standing nearby like "Why's this chick suddenly playing the tambourine?" and some others that were like "Where's that tambourine coming fro- oh, it's Ariel. Wait, why's she not standing on the stage with the team then?" hahaha XD
I caught someone's eye from the other side of the ballroom and it was hilarious when she got the "Ohhhhhh..." look of understanding when she finally saw where the tambourine sound (that was clearly NOT ON STAGE) was coming from lol
our worship team consisted on Calvary + Lakeland members | there was a clear dynamic change from song to song (different churches sing different songs more often, so you can tell from the reaction of the congregation and the general FEEL of the song as to which church was "leading" that one) and that was kind of cool to experience
I'm not typically one for bathroom selfies, but there are almost never pictures of me on this blog, so here you go. Plus, the bathroom in the upper level of the Student Center is actually quite nice and there's a whole sitting area with GIANT mirrors for doing make-up and such. I actually quite liked this outfit that I threw together. :) It was a very grey Easter / Resurrection Sunday, weather-wise, and the happy colors on this dress cheered me up considerably.
Most families go all out for a fancy Easter / Resurrection Sunday lunch or dinner, right?
Not our family. lol We were exhausted for whatever reason. Maybe because of the festivities for P. Bruce's birthday the night before? Mum made some braised beef (my new fave, seriously) and "fancy" + spicy instant noodles (meaning we actually added real veggies lol).
my parents are so cute <3
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These are some of the flowers blooming in our yard right now. Mum brought them in on the day Mickey + Carol came over. Aren't they pretty? :)Here's a quick Easter / Resurrection Sunday present for you (here). It's a video from last Easter when we had Missions / International Sunday, which as I mentioned earlier, was supposed to be happening again this year at the same time but got bumped back to April 15th instead. It's also where I debuted my first original rap verse. If you haven't seen it yet, comment below and tell me what you thought of it. If you HAVE already seen it, hopefully you liked it and it brought back a fond memory for you :)
Small note, harmonies and ocarina accompaniment all written by me as well :)
Hugs to all of you! Especially those of you far away.
Miss you bunches!
~Ari
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