Easter Morning Service

Six in the morning and I roll out of bed. I take a shower and check all my RSS feeds, the normal routine. Slowly I get my stuff together. I am getting ready for church. No one is with me though. I couldnt convince anyone to get up this early in the morning. It will be okay though. I hop in the car, flip on the wipers and put Arvo Pärt's Passio on. The drive to Abbotsford was great. I love these dreary mornings, especially with a good sound track, although I couldn't complain if it was a sunny Easter morning. I will take this though.
The service was being held at the house of some people from the church. Actually we were down by the lake. They had set up a huge tent, which kept us dry from the light drizzle coming down. I stood around for a while, just watching people and the lake while sipping coffee. There was really no one to talk to, but I was okay with that. The service began with a few songs and Johnny gave a short message. Then they started to do baptisms: testimonies, words of affirmation, scripture reading and then the deed. There were a lot of parents and relatives there, which was neat because they got to say a few words about their kids. I always get so choked up about that stuff, and I don't even know these people. I also got to see this lady that I met on Flickr get baptized with her husband. One guy even came up to Johnny this morning and said he wanted to be baptized, so he did. Johnny emphasized how in the Bible people repented and were baptized that day, and he left the invitation open to anyone else that wanted to do it.
After the service they had breakfast ready for us. I got my food and then went to stand by the fire where Dan (a guy who was in my curling class) and his friends were. I finished my food and got myself warmed up. Dan and his friends then went to get food. One of the girls who got baptized was standing there by the fire. I talked to her for a while and found out that she is pretty new to the area. Actually, she had only been to the church the week before.
Then I went back to the tent to meet some other people. My friend Steph knows the guy who leads worship, so I found him and started talking to him. His roommate is actually going out with my friend Tressa, which is kind of neat. After talking to him I once again made my way back to the fire. I got to talk to this lady there that had graduated from Trinity. She was really nice and her little daughter kept slashing around in puddles in her little rain boots.
I was one of the last ones there, and Dan too. Right before I left I went and met the pastor, Johnny. He had emailed me last week about getting together for coffee sometime to talk. We talked for a while and I got to learn about his background. He is really passionate about the church being strictly Biblical, like with male elders and things like that. He is going to be heading down to Disneyland this afternoon with his family for the next week and a half. When he gets back we are going to get together sometime. I am looking forward to it and hopefully getting more involved with the church.