During the month of March Trinity underook a grand project.  The planning began, envisioning the outcome commenced,and with the first of many, many hours of preparation and planning the production of eight stations began.  On April 10, 2009, just before our Good Friday Services, from 5:30 until 6:45, our gym and education building, after hours of intense preparation, help from numerous volunteers, and a staging of scenes as barely seen before, "Journey to the Cross" commenced.

 

This was a prgram designed to create a new appreciation for the week before Jesus' death, as well as increase the awareness of our participation in his death as well as the forgivness we continue to find in Jesus' presence with us.  The presentation began by presenting us with the question, "What would we do if we had only one week to live?" and then we walked with Jesus through the week before his crucifixion.

 

We walked across the palms and received a stone inscribed with a cross, reminding us of Jesus' words, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."   Then we met a trader in a part of the temple that was overturned by Jesus; tables were turned over, coins were everywhere,feathers from the fleeing chickens is all that remained.  There also was Jesus from whom we heard, "My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you make it a den of robbers."  From there we arrived at the house of Mary and Martha and saw the dedication and extravagant love shown to Jesus as his feet were washed and we could smell the sweet-smelling perfume.

 

From there a recounting of the first passover; set up with food to sample and even wood posts to paint with "blood."  This provided the history and context needed for the next station, "The Last Supper...in the Upper Room".  There we learned all we have to be thankful for and wrote our thanksgivings upon the table cloth.  All of these stations were set with wonderful lightng and music.  We saw Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and an audio-visual recounting of the betrayal by Judas.  We saw Jesus appear before Pilate in his chambers and we re-lived some of their conversation. 

 

The final stations focused on Jesus' death.  We were given a black cloth and invited to write something that was bearing on our conscience.  Once written, we placed our black crosses at the food of a cross where we heard Jesus' "seven words" being reiterated from the cross.  After dropping our sins at the foot of his cross we walked through the torn curtain in the temple, received a bookmark with John 3:16 on it, and then had the opportunity to plant a flower reminding of the hope of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

 

Needless to say, this brief summary doesn't do justice to the detail experienced during this program.  On the "Album" page there is an album of the evening showing pictures of the different scenes.  Overall an excellent evening and many, many people expressed how meaningful and alive it made the story for them again; and this was only the first year for this program.  Perhaps in the future it wil become greater and better, a known and open invitation to the community to come and participate as well.

 

The two leaders who brought the idea forward and led and organized and served and volunteered the most was Linda Young and Linda Moore.  Thank you for your tireless work and dedication to enrich our experiences at Trinity!