After arriving at our daughter Rose's apartment after midnight on Saturday morning of Easter weekend, Sue and I slept in had a very quiet day. In fact, I napped further on Rose's recliner, and Sue, Naomi and Rose spent a good portion of the day steaming wedding clothes. Rose's fiance is Nigerian, and the wedding is to include a lot of Nigerian made outfits that needed to become wrinkle free. It was a quiet day of rest.
But this changed the next morning as we all got up early for Easter service at Rose and Temi's church. Temi himself, the groom, was still away in New Orleans with the groomsmen, so it was just the four of us preparing for church that morning. I had one simple job, slice the bagels and put them in the toaster. Temi and Rose have a beautiful new set of knives that was a wedding gift. Being new, high quality knives, they are sharp, and I learned this the hard way when I dropped the k nife onto my bare foot. Our peaceful Easter morning was interrupted by my giving myself a deep gash on the top of my left foot.
Fortunately, Rose is not just beautiful bride tobe, she is a nurse. She meticulously cleaned my wound, and even had the surgical glue often used in place of stitches. I was back on my feet and we were on our way to church only a few minutes later than planned.
Rose and Temi's church is wonderful, and the Easter service was absolutely beautiful. They normally have three services, but for Easter they rented a conference hall and everyone came together for one service. We came into amazing worship music is a contemporary Black Gospel style. There were keyboards, guitar, saxophone, and any full choir. After several minutes of lively singing, everyone took our seats.
The congregation at City Center Chruch is beautifully diverse. I would estimate it at about 70% African (recent immigrants) and roughly evenly divided between white and Asian, with a few Latinos as well. What a beautiful snapshot of heaven when all tribes and tongues will worship Jesus together. As for the sermon, a powerful explanation of the Gospel.
After church we went out to a Cajun restaurant and had a crawdad boil. This consists of two big platters of boiled crayfish, shrimp, crab legs, corn and potatoes. One platter was spicy and one was in a garlic butter sauce. I also took the opportunity to have a big bowl of gumbo.
The rest of Easter was spent back at Rose's apartment steaming various wardrobe items for the upcoming nuptials. Our week was just beginning.