Frank Phillips column, Easter, 2003

Sunday night was a short one, but I think I am ready for Easter.
The weekendbegan on Friday night with the very uplifting Clay County civic theater production of "Fiddler On The Roof".
On Sunday afternoon Linda and I boarded Alamo Trails' tour bus for Louisville. Our destination was the SoutheastChristian Church, Louisville, Ky., spiritual home to some 15,000 worshipers each Sunday.
The edifice, as seen from I-64, is very impressive. Sanctuary seats rise somefive floors above the pulpit and there is a cross on top of the building. I don't want to say we were high, but I swear I could see the pearly gates from my seat.
"That's not much different from our church," I joked with afellow passenger. "You can see our church from all over Alamo, too."
Alamo,Ind., is a tiny village in Montgomery County, Ind. I became their minister1975-1978. In 1995, when I could no longer find a church that would have myservices, the members made me their interim minister. Today, seven years later, I may be in the longest interim ministry on record, but that's another story.
Anyway, a few facts and rumors about the Southeast church help to demonstrate why Hoosiers would ride a bus three hours to Louisville, and why Linda and I would plan to arrive home at 2:30 a.m. Monday when I hadto get up at 5 a.m. According to the information I gathered: Louisville police direct traffic each Sunday morning. The church has three worship services, averaging 5,000 worshipers in each service. The church has afleet of retired school buses they use to shuttle worshipers to the buildingfrom the parking lot. The architect who designed the building reportedly said the proposed sanctuary seating of 10,000 would be too large and take away the feeling of homeyness.
"Let's seat 9,000 instead," he said.
The building sports a chapel larger than most country churches.
A round welcome center offers information to first-time visitors. The center is some 50 feet in diameter.
Children's ministries are graded by age and, you guessed it, each grade is at least as large as many churches.
The church has 19 paid ministers. The number of elders is larger than the attendance of some small churches.
Communion is served in six minutes to the whole congregation in each service every Sunday.
The church publishes a weekly newsletter. Last week's letter was 36 pages of full-size, broadsheet newsprint. By the way, the color photos on page 1 were better quality than you find in The Brazil Times on most days. My wife suffers from vertigo and was not pleased to find we had to make our way to the fifth floor in open escalators.
"This is better than Sears!" I joked, thinking of the escalators in the South Bend, Ind. Sears store I enjoyed riding as a child.
Looking far below, we could see the Easter musical set. It looked like they had built the city of Jerusalem full-scale as a backdrop for the life of Christ.
An orchestra was warming up.
This was pretty heady stuff for a small-townboy used to piano accompaniment during worship -- piano and organ for revivals.
Because those of us in the nose bleed section couldn't see the action so far away, very large TV monitors were installed at our level andTV cameras followed the actors on stage. Not only did actors dressed as angels fly out of heaven at Jesus' birth, but a white dove landed upon him at his baptism. Live animals, including a horse, donkeys, lambs and camelswere brought on stage at appropriate points in Jesus' life. Following the resurrection, Jesus ascended to the Father on a wire harness which lifted him up to a fifth floor exit from ground level.
I was impressed.
It was great! I half expected them to resurrect the original apostle Paul as an encore!
If I sound envious --of course I am!
In 1976, the folks of the Alamo church rented a school bus and rode five hours to my home town of Niles, Mich. to participate in my ordination. I always appreciated their love, butI fully expected to help build a church like the Southeast Christian Church.We all have our talents and some day I will find mine (rim shot, please.) My destiny lay in spending 20-odd years -- mostly odd -- ministering to small churches, all of which had leaders who said they wanted the church to grow and then blamed their minister because when it didn't. Then I decided to leave church growth to people like Rev. Bob Russell of the Southeast church. In 1994, I went back to my first loves -- writing and radio. I became news director at the Crawfordsville radio station and later a reporter for the Crawfordsville newspaper. I had successfully written free-lance articles for about 20national publications from 1972-1994. I received honors for my work at thecollege campus radio station my freshman year.
Somewhere in there is a lesson for us all, I believe, about following your heart or your interests. And yes, I am ready for Easter.

This is Holy Week, as recognized by Christians around the world. It commemorates the last week of Jesus' life on earth before thecrucifixion. Beginning Palm Sunday, Holy Week continues through thefollowing Sunday, which we recognize as Easter Sunday, celebrating Jesus' resurrection from the dead on the third day following his death on Calvary. Many churches celebrate Holy Week in various ways. Some, like the little country church we attend, have pre-Easter revival services, including Maundy Thursday, remembering the night of Jesus' betrayal at the hands of Judas Iscariot.
Last night, our church, like many others, celebrated Maundy Thursday with a candlelight communion service. We also shared in a recreation of the Passover meal enjoyed by Jesus and the disciples on that fateful night. We ate roast lamb, bitter herbs and other foods that the disciples must haveeaten on many Passovers. I suppose Holy Week and Easter has more meaning for me today than does Christmas.
As a child, I looked forward to Christmas because of St. Nick and thepresents and the family gatherings. Today, as I approach my 50th birthday, I find the message of new life and resurrection comforting. I know I am still young and do not have one foot inthe grave, but our children are grown; one is planning to marry this summerand the other is halfway through her college days. When there are grandchildren running through the house, then, perhaps, Christmas will regain its lost luster, but for the past several years, Easter and the message of resurrection has held my fancy.
Holy week, for us, began March 21. Linda and I attended the Kiwanis Club's monthly program meeting at the YMCA.The speaker was Jerry Crafton of Terre Haute. He presented the club with a personal check for $300 and then proceeded to tell us about plans to build new cabins at a Clay County church camp, northof Brazil. Men of Action, a ministry of the Church of God, plans to spend July 8-20 inClay County building cabins that will be used by a number of youth andadults from various congregations and denominations. Crafton can be reached by e-mail at: jcra955242@aol.com
I have to admit I was touched twice.The $300 gift was not a government expenditure, it did not come from theChurch of God to promote the program; it did not even come from Crafton¹sbusiness. It was a personal check from Crafton¹s checking account to theKiwanis Club of Clay County. Crafton doesn¹t live here, he lives in Terre Haute. That would certainly seem to be Christianity in action.There is a difference in words and action.We attended our church¹s revival Wednesday night.The evangelist was preaching on Mary, who broke open a container of purenard.

Elizabeth Eaton is home.
The animated and attractive teen-ager spent the past year overseas, in the relative safety of Turkey while Americans watched their backs in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
Paula and Elizabeth were more concerned about security in the United States than they were about Elizabeth's safety overseas.
"I wasn¹t worried about her," Paula said. "I know that the Rotary Clubprogram is highly organized. They have an arrangement with the StateDepartment."
Rotary International is notified about security risks overseas and exchange participants are taken out of a dangerous situation within 24 hours. But, Paula has an optimistic outlook on life.
"I believe you should go for the adventure life offers," she said. "You just have to be careful. Your child is in a certain amount of danger on any street in America."
Elizabeth reasoned that Turkey was safe from the forces that attacked America because Turkey is a Muslim nation and it is unlikely Osama bin Laden would order an attack against his own people.
"I was worried that my family might be worried," Elizabeth said. "Turkey is the safest place I could have been. It is totally unpenetrible."
She was pleased to learn that during the ensuing attacks on Afghanistan, National Guard soldiers from Terre Haute were temporarily stationed in the city where she was staying. While safety was not a concern, Elizabeth shared the disbelief of her fellow Americans on Sept. 11.
"I thought it was a joke that my host family was playing on me," she said."They like to play practical jokes and when they said, 'Did you know the Pentagon has been bombed?' my reaction was, 'No one can bomb the Pentagon."
Turkey was actually Elizabeth¹s fourth choice when she considered her travel alternatives. Italy, Greece and Iceland were higher on the list, but after spending a year in that country, she can¹t wait to return to Turkey. Leaving her host family and friends to return to America was the hardest part of the year abroad, though being away from home at Christmas ran a close second.
"I had a big fight with a friend, so I spent most of Christmas Eve crying," Elizabeth said. "But, by New Year¹s Eve, everything was all right again."
Another reason Elizabeth plans to return to Turkey is her love of literature, as one might guess by her e-mail address:bookwormguru@hotmail.com.
"I¹m really into the classics," Elizabeth said. "I take Latin in school. What a thrill it was to walk through the city where Homer was born."
She borrowed a copy of "The Iliad" to take to Turkey. Travel has broadened Elizabeth¹s language skills and her world perspective.
"I knew six words in Turkish when I left home," she said. They were (translated) hello, mother, mountain, nice, one and how to say, "I don¹t understand."
While she modestly denies being fluent in Turkish, her mother says Elizabeth can "conduct her business" using the language. The world has certainly shrunk in Elizabeth¹s view.
"I think that if I have friends on the same continent, I can just go see them whenever I want," she said.
E-mail was a great boon to mother and daughter in the past year.
"We e-mailed back and forth about four times a week," Paula said. "I can¹t imagine waiting three to four weeks for a letter."
"I just wouldn¹t have written letters very much," Elizabeth replied.
Thanks to e-mail, Elizabeth was able to complete her application for National Honor Society. One day she sent her mother an e-mail, asking Paula to call her high school counselor and find out the deadline for the application to be turned in.
The counselor said the deadline was upon them, but promised to give Paula until noon the following day to get the application in.
The counselor faxed the application to Paula,who sent the questions via e-mail to Elizabeth. Elizabeth answered, Paula typed the application and had it in the counselor¹s hands by 10 a.m., an impossible task without the Internet.
Paula is a great believer in the Rotary student exchange program. Paula paid $500 plus airfare and Rotary International took care of the rest of the expense, including tuition at a private school and a $50-per-month allowance for Elizabeth.
"It¹s a great program," Paula said.
The future holds much for Elizabeth. This fall, she will be a senior at Carmel High School, north of Indianapolis. Then she hopes to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where she will study international relations. Elizabeth may also become a published book author, shortly. Her mother kept all her e-mails, Elizabeth kept journals, and she hopes to publish the information.
"I looked and looked for journals written by other teens who traveled abroad, before I left home," Elizabeth said. "I couldn¹t find any. I think it would be a great tool."
So ends Elizabeth Eaton¹s saga as shared by her mother in The Brazil Times. Elizabeth welcomes questions sent to her e-mail address.