Wow, I've really been MIA on this thing!  Haha I guess I've been more on Facebook and MySpace and haven't kept up so much with xanga.  But I do have some good news to share!  This past weekend, my church (Citylights) put on our very first Easter service/celebration as a church!  We had organized one last year, but we hadn't officialy launched the church yet.  So this year we went all out...we mailed out flyers all around the neighborhood inviting them to come celebrate with us, and we got an awesome response!  We expected a lot of people to come out for the celebration part (after church), but we didn't expect the turnout that we got for the actual church service!  In the children's ministry alone (which is where i was serving) we had somewhere around 70+ kids!  Haha our church is new, so we typically have about 15 kids total...so this was a pretty big stretch for us, and it was slightly chaotic...but praise God for all those kids He brought out!

One thing that was really amazing to me was how many of those kids had no idea why we celebrate Easter or even who Jesus is.  I asked the kids, "So, who knows why we celebrate Easter?"  And here are some of the responses I got:

"Because of heaven?"

"Because the Easter bunny comes and gives us lots of candy!"

"To celebrate the baby bunnies and baby chickies that are born!"

Only the pastor's son was able to give me the right answer, which was really sad to me.  But it was exciting to be able to tell them about Jesus and how He died on the cross for our sins, and to see the kids' reactions to this good news!  I had a group of 25 kids, and even though they were talking and noisy and going nuts the whole time we were making crafts and eating snack, when I started to tell them the story of Jesus, they were all facing forward and listening closely.  It was an awesome sight.  Praise God for these little ones, and for the chance to share Jesus with them :)

Inflating a gazillion balloons decorating the community center! 

*note* I have no pictures of Sunday School because it was waaaaay to chaotic!  Haha but it was awesome! :)

Mr. Fujikawa and Pastor Thien workin' the BBQ

Decorating eggs while waiting for the Easter egg hunt to start

There were sooooooo many kids lined up to do the Easter egg hunt!  These are just the older kids (we had already let the younger ones in)

Good thing we separated the little kids from the older kids!  Those kids are egg crazy!

Some of my favorite kids!  Lauren and Shane, and Lukie!  So happy with their eggs :)

Some of our GVBC helpers enjoying lunch.  Man, they were total lifesavers!  I don't know what we would have done without them their help!

Lori and me

Lori and me with Misty, one of the awesome sisters I met at Citylights.  She's moving to New Jersey (leaving in a few hours!), but it's been a privilege knowing her and serving alongside her.

Praise God for allowing Citylights Church to be part of His work to bring Himself glory in Long Beach!

oh, what a fun crazy weekend!  i <3 my aacf class!  haha such weirdos.

ben got these sunglasses as his gift exchange present!  why does my head look so tiny?! :(

trip to Pink Berry!  (which i don't like, but they enjoyed!)

and of course, lots of wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

it was really fun catching up with everyone.  and even though we're getting old, we managed to stay up pretty late!  me, adri, cindy, allen, and ben were up talking 'til 5:30am, which is when we decided we should try to get at least some sleep!  the next day we woke up just in time to watch UCLA play Michigan...whom we KILLED!!!  haha and then ben had to go home, so cindy, adri, allen, and i had lunch and went shopping at the new mall in simi valley (their first mall! haha).  and then when it got dark allen took us to candy cane lane so we could walk around and look at the christmas lights!  sooooo pretty!

i liked this one...a waterfall of lights!  very creative.

along the way cindy met santa and he told her she made the "nice" list!  yay cindy!

and then adrienne tried to eat a fake gingerbread man.  i think she was hungry.

so, we ended the night with a late night jack in the box run.  haha just like the old days of clogging our arteries! :)

so many good times this weekend...many more memories to cherish! :)