PINE GROVE - While anglers cast their lines into Sweet Arrow Lake at the crack of dawn Sunday, congregations from two area churches gathered at Sweek Arrow Lake County Park to mark Easter at sunrise.
"At a sunrise service, you get to see people from town that don't normally come out to church. Some of the fishermen come in a little closer to shore. You get to see a little bit of everything," Dave Lymaster, a member of Pine Grove Wesleyan Church, said.
"And it's a beautiful morning," said Raymond Stump, a member of the Schuylkill Church of the Brethren, Pine Grove.
More than 55 members of that church gathered at the shore near the fish and boat access area just off Sweet Arrow Lake Road. It's a Protestant congregation that has been holding sunrise Easter services at the lake since 1989, Stump said.
Meanwhile, more than 90 members of the Pine Grove Wesleyan Church gathered at the shore near the clubhouse and pavilion just off Clubhouse Road. It's a Methodist congregation that has been holding sunrise Easter services at the lake since 2012, according to Chris Lehman, Pine Grove.
In 2012, more than 70 people came out for the Wesleyan Church's sunrise service. "And we had about 120 last year," Lymaster said.
"We're expecting about 150 people," Lehman said.
Temperatures were about 40 degrees when the Pine Grove Wesleyan Church's "Community Sunrise Service" began at 6:30 a.m. Sunbeams slowly grew stronger and stronger over the horizon as Canadian geese flew over the lake and of songbirds chirped.
Jim and Pansy Strickland, Pottsville, brought blankets with them. They were there with Pansy's sister, Beverly Trumbo, Summit Station, who was bundled in a winter coat with a fur-lined hood.
Others either wrapped themselves up in blankets, used them as seat covers on the wooden benches near the clubhouse or spread them out on the grass and sat on them while listening to the service.
Jamie Zimmerman and her mother, Deb Wessner, of Pine Grove, brought coffee in travel mugs.
"Hazlenut," Wessner said.
"I have Folgers with extra, extra sugar," Zimmerman said.
The pastor of the Pine Grove Wesleyan Church, Kenneth "Kenny" Smith, led the service on the east shore.
"As Easter brings hope for a joyous tomorrow, even out of the depths of despair, so may this day banish you from every sorrow and make you feel free as the air. While hearing grand anthems that swell to the sky and breathing sweet lily's perfume, may you feel assured that your soul will not die as life does not end in the tomb," Smith said as he started the service.
The people who attended the Pine Grove Wesleyan Church service on the east shore could see the sunrise service being conducted by the Schuylkill Church of the Brethren on the west shore.
"And you will hear them singing," Pansy Strickland said.
The service on the west shore was held by Deacons Ken Kintzel and Kirk Wolfe of the Schuylkill Church of the Brethren.
Songs they sang included "Christ Arose," Stump said.
"When the sun comes up over the hill and its reflected in the lake, it's beautiful," Pansy Strickland said.
"It gives us a reason to sing," Stump said.
"It's so much better than being inside a building. I like that it's not as formal," Jamie Zimmerman said.