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Gosh, it’s Wednesday already? I’ve been meaning to write an entry about Easter weekend right away but once Monday came around, I hit the ground running at work and next thing I knew, a couple of days have gone by.

Easter weekend started with the whole family heading off to Good Friday service at our church’s new meeting place, the Alta Mira Club, a historic building in San Leandro. The following day, we got up early to watch, for the first time, our church’s basketball team play (yes, we have one!). They made it to their league’s playoffs and had a shot at the finals as one of the Final Four teams playing. Unfortunately, they lost the game. It was great seeing the guys play though. We’re mighty proud of them for having had a great season.

We had to leave before the game ended to get to my parents’ house up north. My parents threw an early birthday party for our youngest son since Saturday was the only day that we and all three of my siblings and their families could get together. The kids had a little Easter egg hunt, then they enjoyed ice cream cake and cookies. The cake is from Tucker’s in Alameda. That’s some fancy writing on a toddler’s cake!

The brothers in pastel colors to match the eggs they’re hunting.

Sunday morning, the kids put their Sunday best for a special Easter performance at church. The church children had been rehearsing diligently for the past couple of months. Seeing them recite and sing with confidence and enthusiasm that day was heart-warming (some exhibited stage fright during a trial performance held a few weeks ago). Here is what my eldest son recited:

Then (Jesus) died. The Roman soldiers testified that He was dead: His heart was ruptured. He was buried. But His disciples asked the same question you may be asking: how can a dead man save us? A dead man can’t. That’s why the gospel is such good news. He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.

This was the work the Lord Jesus Christ had come to do to be able to save us from sin. What an amazing love!

The Bible says “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Receiving Him means you believe with all your heart Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose again. You need to be willing to turn from your sin and believe that the Lord Jesus can forgive you. He’ll put His life in you to make you His own child – God’s child.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…

I’ve all but forgotten about this section of my blog. I’ve taken a few pictures with the T616 over the past six months or so however, and here are some of them:

  
Left: SFMOMA from the Metreon; Right: Son no. 2 mimicking Harold and the Purple Crayon

  
Left: Gundam head and the boys; Right: Easter bunny with the baby

  
These Star Wars action figures suspiciously look too much like this guy. Well, the one on the right looks more like Oscar Goldman, the Bionic Man’s boss.

  
Left: Came across this clever theft deterrent (it’s fake, guys); Right: Receiving respiratory therapy after an asthma attack.

Here’s a quick rundown of my weekend. On Friday, I got out early from work in order to prepare for the meditation on the Seven Last Sayings of Christ at the Good Friday service that evening. I was assigned to speak on the third saying of Christ, “Dear woman, here is your son.” It was a privilege and honor to speak in front of the congregation. But I feel I’m not cut out for public speaking (like Moses?).

Saturday morning was all about chores. Later I took the kids to Fry’s Electronics where I saw a couple of really good deals on Mac games. I bought the Spider-Man game and Alice game for $9.99 each. My wife meanwhile went to see her good friend’s newborn baby at the hospital. We are still waiting for our own little bundle of joy to arrive.

Later that evening, we had choir practice at my cousin Winston’s house for our Easter Cantata presentation the next day. It was also the birthday of Winston’s wife, Alma, so mucho delicious food was served.

At 6:00 a.m. the next morning, I woke up to head over to our Easter Sunrise Service at a park close by. It was quite chilly. Pastor Alois delivered a stirring sermon on the resurrection of Christ. Here are some pictures:

Shortly afterwards, we went to our respective homes to get ready for the later service where we were to perform the cantata. I got the church bulletins to print out almost without a hitch. My printer had a knack of stopping mid-way in manual feed mode. I’m glad I found out that having the paper go out through the back slot minimizes snags.

We had several guests that morning. Our Easter Cantata presentation, just like our past performances, was preceded by several weeks of practice. This time, however, felt like we were less prepared than usual. Sure enough the entire choir forgot a stanza as we sang the final song. We quickly substituted words from an earlier part of the song. From later inquiries, some audience members indicated they hadn’t noticed the faux pas. I think they were just trying to be nice. Overall, I feel the resurrection message has been proclaimed joyfully, both in song and sermon. Our fallibility does not diminish Christ’s glory and honor.

After church, the family went to my sister’s house for a little egg hunt for the young ones. Also present were our parents and our tito and tita from Virginia. The apos kept them entertained the whole afternoon.

We capped off the day with an evening at the movies. We saw Anger Management. I’d have to tag on a full movie review here if I talked about it so I won’t go there. So much for the quick rundown.