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Hello lurkers,

The weekend went by like a fart. Yesterday I celebrated Easter Sunday with my small Indonesian church in Amsterdam. It was a long and awkward day, but we survived. Almost everything that could go wrong on that day went wrong.

It started with us wanting to leave on time from our own home. There was work planned on the traintrack throughout the entire weekend. Thank goodness a friend from church offered us a ride though, otherwise we would have quite the hassle to get to Amsterdam. We agreed to all gather at my house and leave together early. But my sibling, who has their own place, overslept.

We were supposed to meet early, about noonish,  with the staff at church. By the time that we were on the highway towards Amsterdam, it was already noon.

But Indonesian people like to stretch time; Our clock is made of rubber. Jam karet… The staff showed up 2 hours later than planned. And some still weren’t present. The tech guy was nowhere to be found. One of the main reasons for us to meet earlier than usual, was because our Easter service was going to be held in a bigger venue. This meant we would need more time to prepare the sound system.

We had about 1,5 hours to fix this now. Without the tech guy, it was a quite tricky. My sibling and I always help with installing the sound system. But the tech guy is more experienced. Thankfully our guitar guy and my uncle who used to work as a tech guy at a museum were there too. Together we tried our best to get the venue ready for Easter service, but missed a few important cables. And those cables happened to be in a box that was in the car of our regular tech guy, who was still on his way… It was quite stressful. By the time that our tech guy showed up, we were long passed the time that our service usually starts.

My goodness, I was going crazy! I was going crazy so bad that I actually picked up smoking again thanks to all the drama during that rush hour of chaos.

I also planned to put on my church outfit after installing the sound system but thanks to all sorts of technical issues, I was so running around so much that I didn’t even get time to do so. It’s not about fancy clothes or shoes anyways. But the people did look at me funny when I stood on stage. I ended up walking around in a longdress with sneakers underneath. But isn’t that the latest lazy fashion trend anyways?

Our Easter Service could finally start, an hour later than scheduled. The praise & worship service went pretty okay. Unfortunately we heard later on from people who sat in the back that they weren’t able to hear the band or the singers.

There were also some special acts scheduled to sing a song. I felt a bit awkward about it, because I happened to be part of at least 4 of these acts. I only planned to sing in the 2 choirs I’m in and I had also rehearsed a song with my mom and uncle. But then some other women from my church asked me if I’d like to sing a song with them too. I ended up on the stage quite often…

The first act was alright. It was a song we had sang before so it wasn’t too difficult, you’d think. Despite of that, we ended up not singing in sync. It also felt a bit as if they were waiting on me to start singing. With every single verse…

There was also a guy who came all the way from the south of the land of wooden shoes to sing. This man was supposed to sing during our Christmas service, but never showed up. We gave him a second change for New Years service, but again he was a no show. But it appears that three is a charm, because he showed up this time. He didn’t sing one but two songs. It was quite impressive.

After the performance of this man, we had a little bit more praise & worship, followed by a movie short of the Passion of The Christ, followed by own pastor taking the stage. Our own pastor tends to have short preaches. Which is nice, because we started later than planned and thanks to his short preach we somehow managed to be back on schedule.

Followed by the preach of our pastor was more praise and worship and then more special acts. There was a testimony by an older man who was sick for a long time. We had been praying for him throughout the year. In his testimony he spoke of his illness and how the power the Lord through prayer has given him strength. Praise God, the man said he was cured and according to the doctors he does not need to be on medication anymore.

After this wonderful testimony, it was time for the 2nd act; My mom, my uncle and I. My uncle collects guitars and likes to play country tunes in the comfort of his own home. He has never performed in front of a live audience before. But that Easter Sunday we decided to make a change in that.

He was so nervous, poor soul. Shaking like a leaf he stumbled his way onto the stage as our names were announced.

We were going to perform a country song titled The Old Rugged Cross, which we were able to only practice  3 times together. Thankfully the regular guitar guy of our church band was such a cool cat to chip in and encourage my uncle. The performance of the song went pretty well. My mom and I managed to sing out of tune too much. My uncle played as if he would have done at home; like a charm.

So far so good.

But then the guitar guy asked me if we’d like to do a second song. It was my fault, I guess. Originally, I had asked to do a solo with the guitar guy. But that was before I knew I was scheduled in for several other acts during Easter Service. I figured to skip that solo and just go with the choirs. I didn’t want it to make this Easter service a “me-show”.

My uncle only knows how to play country songs. The solo I wanted to skip was a Hillsong tune; A song that would fit the Easter theme just right. But now I wasn’t alone onstage. My mom was singing too. The country song went quite alright for her. But with the Hillsong tune she didn’t know how to find the right note. Oh Praise The Name is a beautiful song. Unfortunately we sounded like a train wreck. I wished the earth would open up and  swallow me whole that very moment….

The rest of the acts went pretty good, thankfully. Before we knew it, it was all over and done with and it was time for Easter dinner. All in all it wasn’t a horrible service.

There are more big sermons planned next month. Incase our tech guy won’t show up, I asked the staff to consider to hire someone to fix the sound system for us. It would save us a lot of stress.

The rest of the Sunday evening went quite alright. There was enough food. There was an open mic for those willing to share a tune or two. My uncle even dared to play a tune on his guitar with the other musicians. He seems to have come out of his shell. He offered to play the guitar more often.

All in all it wasn’t that bad, now that I think about it. People seemed to enjoy themselves. And I guess I survived the Easter Sunday service alright.

This Monday morning on the 2nd day of Easter was rainy and very windy. Eventhough I was quite tired from my Sunday activities, I had planned yet another acivity today. I spent the day with my granny and my dad.

The trip to my granny’s town was accompanied with rain and strong winds. There was even a small change of no public transportation in the morning when I left. I heard on the news just now that in some parts of the land of wooden shoes it was so windy, that complete cars got pulled off the road. But thankfully in our case, things turned out fine. I almost got blown away myself though, when my dad picked me up in with his car to head to granny’s place.

It was nice to see my granny again. She is 93 years old, has no clue what day of the week it is and hardly remembers on what street she lives. But this morning when I set foot into her home, she actually recognized me! Normally she would say “Hello lady, nice to meet you.” This time when I walked in she said; “How nice of you to bring your daughter again!” to my dad. That sure made my day 🙂  She asked me about my mother and my sibling and we had a nice chitchat about days of long ago while looking through old family pictures. My dad had brought along some home made apple pie, made by his wife. It was quite tasty and granny sure loved it too.

Now I’m home. The weather seemed to have cleared up and we actually have some sunrays. But I am so tired right now. I think I will go and have myself a well deserved nap.

That will be all. Thank you for reading this stuff. And if you like this you migth also like my shirts, mugs and other awesome gear. You can find them right here at my Red Bubble Shop! Buy a nifty shirt and help raise money for the Feed The Hungry Fund. Thank you.

That will be all. Have a blessed 2nd day of Easter.