Stations of the cross at St Joseph's

As you know, about a week ago the choir planned a trip to St. Joseph's church in Bukit Timah for stations of the cross. The reason for this is, of course, the outdoor stations. It was a welcome change to the normal stations we have standing and kneeling in church. We actually got to feel a small tiny part of what Jesus went through for us.

Leonie, Mark, Caroline and myself met at the bus stop opposite Leo's house. The sky was dark and looked just about ready to rain when I got there. I later found out from Leo that it looked that way even from the time she was walking out. Amazingly, the sky waited until Caroline arrived and for us to get on the bus to start it's downpour. Surprisingly it was only a drizzle. On our journey there, we realised that we were not going to be there in time for their service so we decided to do it on our own.

Once we got there, we met up with Dave, Jackie and Jon. There we sent Daryl and Dave to get books for us for the stations. There weren't any left, luckily they found a nice man who was the caretaker there and he was willing to lend us books from the bookshop there. Once we had the books we were ready to begin the stations.

When we sang the opening hymn, I've never heard us sound so beautiful. It really touched me, we sounded like we were one. We took turns reading the passages, walking from station to station. The statues were almost life size and depicted Jesus' journey to his cross. When we were at the fifth or sixth station it began to drizzle, but we continued with the service because completing it was more important to us than staying dry. At the end we sang the ending hymn and left. We couldn't return the books because they got wet so we bought them.

Since most of us were feeling hungry and in need of some nourishment we decided to adjourn to Newton. There we basically had a feast! And thanks to Mark, a lot of chicken wings! I left that night feeling full in more ways than one. Full of the delicious food we ate but most of all, full of happiness from spending time together, and full of wonder that Jesus had actually done all of that for us. We had to walk from station to station, but His walk was far longer and more perilous. We climbed a flight of stairs during the stations, but Jesus had to climb a hill. We had to endure drizzle, whereas He had to endure jeers and spitting from the crowd, lashing from the guards and carry his cross. He did that all for us, so he can wash away our sins.
I'm glad we had that outing, though I wish more of us can make it for our future outings.

May we do everything in your name Lord, that we can thank you for your sacrifices for us in every breath we take.

God Bless you and I love you all!

Oli

P.S. I'll get the pictures we took of that night and post them up here a.s.a.p.!