Decorating the Christmas tree in the church hall for the sanctuary.
Untangling the decorations, which came straight from the storage room.
Decorating another Christmas tree for the lounge.
Professional Christmas tree decorators.
Our tree :)
One of the guys decided to hang a bird (which had weird red eyes) on this string of lights as a decoration, but it fell over so now it's just a creepy dead bird.
Hanging tinsel on the sign.
Decorating the church after youth group on Monday.
The girls put tinsel on my head and made me carry all that other tinsel and presents.
Some of the girls from youth group. They're awesome. I will miss them.
A group of youth called 'King's Kids' from Israel came to church to perform songs and dances.
They introduced themselves and I was surprised to find that they were all Jews, but from different countries like America, Russia, Ethiopia, and Germany, to name a few.
This is a picture of the pretty street lights in Warwick, where I was on Friday to do 'pub ministry.'
My teammates abandoned me last weekend (the guys went to do boys club in a muslim area, and our fearless leader went off gallivanting to Nottingham to visit her cousin), so I went with my supervisor to join another team in their 'pub evangelism' --- we sang Christmas carols (about Jesus of course; no Santa songs) in three different pubs and gave out tracts with candy canes, and each one was better than the previous. I think it might have something to do with the night getting later and people getting more drunk. It was a Friday night, after all.
At the first pub, the people were middle-aged, and they mostly ignored us. At the second pub, the patrons were young, like my age, and they sang along with us for a while. At the third pub, the people were elderly, and they sang all the songs merrily with us and even requested us to sing other songs. All in all, it was a fun night.
This Sunday was our last church service at Hasbury (at least for 3 out of 5 of us on the team who are going home.) It was bittersweet. They had a special service with a dance, a song, and a drama skit from the youth group, songs and readings from the kids club, and a break dance performance from one of the boys. It was a great service, but we had to say goodbye to several people, which was sad, especially thinking about how I'll probably never see them again. Until we meet in heaven.
The girls did a great job dancing to the song 'Happy Day,' even though they were really nervous and forgot some of the moves. But they braved it through. I'm proud of them. And I'm glad they even turned up at all, because some people didn't come even though they said they would.
They did a drama skit about a photographer taking a picture of the Virgin Mary statue, but when he turns around to fiddle with his camera, shoppers come and completely change the statue, taking away the baby Jesus and putting a Santa hat, presents, tinsel, and toys in place of it. I think it was a really good reminder to us about how we shouldn't let the world commercialize Christmas, because ultimately, it is all about celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior.
My Hasbury team. We had to take pictures in the church for memory's sake. I still can't believe this was our last service. I really will miss the church and all the wonderful people there who welcomed us with open arms. The three of us who are leaving went to the evening service, and the elders of the church thanked us for serving the church, prayed for us, and blessed us. It was so sweet of them. And we gave them a present (a hanging Christmas decoration from the German market) and a card. They're such amazing people and they're really doing great things for Christ.
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