6.50am Kids are up, Happy Easter! Let’s go!

8.30am I’m leaving home with a car full (Sophia, Aidan and play pod) for the 9am Book of Common Prayer Service. You may know that’s it’s not my favourite liturgy in the world, but I can see that other people love it, so I’m pleased to be doing the service today. Still, it’s a lot on S&A to do two services. Never mind, their lunchboxes are full and we are ready to go!

9.45am A brief pause between services – time to change Aidan’s nappy (thanks Aidan!) and have a coffee.

2.50pm What. A. Morning!

I don’t know where to start with this one! I guess I’ll start with the negatives.

First, our lovely curate, Kate, ended up with an order of service that didn’t match what was on the screen – even though I had sat with my laptop and checked the church computer version with the version on my laptop to make sure it was right! But never mind, she handled it well, even as Aidan decided to hand her items from his lunch box as she spoke. What a pro!

Secondly, Aidan filled his nappy during communion – AGAIN!

Thirdly, I lost my sermon. Yep, I had it written, printed, cut up and stuck into my preaching folder. I took it out of my bag between the services and put it down somewhere, and when the service started, I couldn’t see it. I was like, You’re going to have to give me the words to say here God, because I am not an off-the-cuff kinda girl!

Anyway, as is so often the way when things go wrong, the rest of the service was great! We were so full that we had to get more chairs out! There were so many children that I couldn’t count them (luckily our warden Mick did!). The singing was loud, the music was great, the prayers were deep. Bread (yep, gluten free) was broken and fruit of the vine was poured. We celebrated, we remembered, we praised. It was what Easter is all about.

There were two extra special bits for me though. Before the service in one instance, and during communion in the other, I noticed people who I know are very poorly and fighting huge battles. They are both on our prayer list, and are both much loved by members of our community. The fact that today, they could come, and today, they chose to spend time with us could make me cry even now.

As well as all that, we were visited once again by the amazing Father Christmas, who said he’d come to church because without Easter, he wouldn’t do what he does. It’s because Jesus was born, lived, taught, loved, died and rose again, that Father Christmas does what he does. And, a side note, Father Christmas was expecting this Vicar to stick to the sermon she had prepared and sent to him a couple of days ago – which she did not! Another person who was an absolute pro in the face of quite a challenge.

To top it all off, once the congregation had gone into the Hub for coffee, chocolate eggs were hidden all over church and the children found them all. They collected them at the front and the goods were shared out. It was great.

The rest of the day so far has involved a car nap, Maccies with my little gang (the food is very fast and fresh on Easter Sunday!) and an egg hunt in our garden. I managed to distract Sophia for long enough for Nathan to set the eggs out, but he came back in and said ‘I’ve just chased a big rabbit out of the garden! I don’t know what he wanted!’ – her little face fell! But I suggested we go and have a look, and all was well.

10pm Well, it has been a full on Easter! I am so pleased to be falling into nice clean sheets tonight, and that I’ll be having a full week off now.

In some ways, it’s been quite a tricky week. I can’t quite say why for sure. Maybe it’s the build up. Maybe it’s because I’ve not done this for two years. Maybe it’s because there’s an extra human to think about now. Maybe it’s everything, maybe some years are just harder than others.

But, as always, I am so grateful for Team ASSF for making it all happen, for going with my more crazy ideas, for trusting me and for being so gracious to me. I’m grateful for Team Poppy, for Nathan and our family for listening to me, for supporting me, for holding it all so that I can do what I do, for seeing the worst of me and still loving me.

And, of course, I am so grateful to Jesus. I honestly would despair without the hope I have because of my faith. To know that he came down from heaven to be with us, to cry with us, to rejoice with us, to save us when we are lost, it just completely changes how I see the world. We are never alone, we are loved beyond measure, and two thousand years ago, he kicked death squarely in the face so that we can have eternal life, in all its fullness.

Amen to that!

Happy Easter everyone. Thank you for reading x