Indescribable

I can't fully describe how I felt.

I walked into this room, and I immediately felt a surge of excitement, of joy, of immense gratefulness and celebratory evidence all around the room, and this wasn't even where the celebration was at. Faces smiling back at me-new and old, far and near, I felt like tears of joy wanted to burst out of my soul. We were all giddy spirits like graduates awaiting their name to be called up, but this was better.

I sensed something yesterday that lingers strongly in my heart and it was one of the best first steps I've taken into the sanctuary. It was like a zap of happiness from heaven through the doors of NEAC. The sanctuary felt fuller, livelier, and the power of the Holy Spirit was totally taking over. Worship always sweeps me off my feet, but yesterday was a special moment. It was a rare, but domino effect of a worship statement.

After service, I couldn't even wait to get ready and get to the venue for our 30th celebration. I somehow ended up doing some last minute prep work with the MCs and I honestly enjoyed every moment of it. I don't even know how I find myself in these positions, but some how, some way, my love for events just finds opportunities to serve for myself. Feeling the adrenaline rush, time ticking, and expressing stress with those I was with, even though I personally wasn't stressed at all was satisfying. My mind was also thinking about what I was going to wear, how I was going to do my makeup, the photobooth, the videos, the people, the energy, the effort and all the brothers and sisters who was going to be there, as well as all those who make our church what it is today.

I exclaimed at one point that I was having more fun then at a wedding and I'm actually thinking the abundance of truth in that statement. At a wedding, you are celebrating for two people uniting as one, two love birds, and the whole night is focussed on them too, but last night, the celebration was for everyone. We were all uniting as the body of Christ, and God was definitely in our midst and presence as we revisited all the blessings and challenges we've had over these 30 years.

The night ended way too young, but it was a Sunday so I can understand why. However, I couldn't stop recapping the whole night on my way home and at home as I constantly scrolled my social media feed for more. More photos, more hashtags, more smiles, more laughter, more faces. I am totally up for an after party next time. Even today, when I woke up, I was still overjoyed, and one of the first things I did was check Facebook to see if the photobooth photos were uploaded, and to my delight they were! Almost made me late for work, but it was worth it. I think my favourite part was sitting on the floor with other SICs and watching the ending video together. It felt so homey and comfortable just where we were at, like we were in someone's living room. And even though I had the honour to put together this video and watched it a dozen of times already, it felt different watching it then and there with everyone else.

Everything was worth it. One thing is for sure, this is just the beginning and NEAC will surely have many more "30 years!"

Let the JOY remain!