2.30am Soph awake!

3am She’s back down in her cot.

6.30am Soph awake!

Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

8.20am We are up, dressed, and getting ready to go. Soph will be at ASSF for the 9am BCP and main Sunday service today. We decided it was best to keep her away from the church that had a fire pit at the start of the service.

8.50am Complete with Amber monkey, sticker books, the playmobil farm and many snacks, Soph is ready for her first two service Sunday at ASSF.

9.50am The BCP went well – we only had one brief interludes while I found Sophia some chocolate! During the service, she managed to spread her things across a whole few of chairs. Anyway, on with the next service!

12.30pm What a lovely morning! We praised, we prayed, we shared good news, we broke bread, we thought about our names, and how Jesus calls each of us to be his disciples!

Afterwards, I met with a child who wants to be confirmed and his parents, which was great! I also spoke to somebody whose wife was wanting to come to church today but had been too unwell to and was really upset about it. He asked if there was any chance of me going and saying some prayers with her this afternoon. Of course, I said.

2pm We decided to go to Toby Carvery for lunch. Neither of us had energy to cook, but we wanted to feel like we had done something special for lunch.

Sophia and I were over faced by our mountains of food, but Nathan managed to finish his!

It’s good to catch up. Nathan’s morning was good too. He had a baptism in the main service so it was a full house. I was right to take Soph to ASSF, though. In the wind today, Nathan nearly had an accident involving the Easter fire and his robes! I’m glad he wasn’t juggling Soph as well.

3.30pm We’re home for a quick feed before I head out to do this visit.

5.30pm I know I say it all the time, but it really is such a privilege to sit with people in the tough times. And just when I think I’ve got no words or energy, God provides. He is wonderful.

8.30pm Nathan and I treated ourselves to a nice bottle of red to break our Lenten fast. We’ve brought it up to bed and we’re in PJs watching Silent Witness. It’s a good end to a good Holy Week.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my first Easter at ASSF. Thinking about it, each of my Holy Weeks so far has been very different. My first one was as a Deacon, then I was a Priest, then it was lockdown, then I was at the Good Shepherd, then we had Soph. All of them have been so different.

I’ve loved learning about ASSF this week as well as bringing good practices with me from other places. One of the best things about this week for me has been watching the bare crosses at the front of church transform. You’ll have seen from the picture at the top that by today, they are as lush and as leafy as I hoped they would be.

The empty cross being transformed into a tree is what Easter is all about. On the Friday, death, it seems, won. The hatred and bitterness and brokenness of the world won – temporarily. But then, on Easter Day, death was defeated. Jesus rose from the dead, back to life, better than ever. It means that death is not the end, just like winter is not the end because the leaves eventually grow in the spring. It’s life changing stuff, if you let it be! I’d love to chat to you about it someday if you fancy it.

But not right now, or tomorrow. I’ve had an amazing week, but blimey, I’m tired!

Vicar out.