Just Another One of Those Weekends…
Lately it seems that the weekends are just full to the max with activities. Take this past weekend.
Friday after work was a mad dash home to grab my kids, video camera and Bible for Vacation Bible School. Luckily I live 5 minutes away from church. No time to change out of work clothes because my wife tells me that my son’s friend wants to come. So we drive up the hill, pick up Buddy and then drive back down to church. We make it in time to still enjoy the great light dinner that the ladies in our church have prepared. God Bless them! ;) I also have time to go over the PowerPoint presentation, iTunes, and videos for the VBS rally – yeah, church has become high-tech. This year the theme is Game Day Central and the verses are from Hebrews12:1,2: Run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. So anyway the rally goes pretty well except for me playing the wrong tune at one point – oops.
After VBS we walked up the street to the Rissho Kosei Kai (RKK) Buddhist temple for the Bon Dance. What is a Christian doing at a Buddhist temple you ask? I’m enjoying the community fellowship, the cultural experience of the festive food and dance. I do not partake in the worship or incense offering – God would most certainly be displeased with that. The Apostle Paul who preached to and fellowshipped with both Jews and Gentiles once said:
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Col. 2:16, 17
And
If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake. 1 Cor. 10:27
My daughter saw her good friend Jamie and the two enjoyed dancing in the circle around the yagura. I of course made a bold attempt at dancing but alas, I’m quite the novice compared to fellow blogger and sister in Christ, Donna. It was nice meeting Donna’s friend Shari – she is also very sweet and encouraging to a “dance-challenged” person like me. Their Okinawan music and dance troupe Ukwanshin Kabudan provided excellent authentic Ryuku music and patient instruction in the finer points of Okinawan bon dance:
Saturday found me packing up my music gear and heading off to Maili (West side of Oahu, Hawaii) to play with my part-time band NoName for a Missionette high tea at Paradise Chapel. That’s right: High Tea! God blessed with great (albeit a tad windy) weather there. We played while the kupuna (elders) and pre-teens enjoyed their tea and finger sandwiches. We of course were offered lunch after we had played and we were so touched by the two organizers’ prayer of safe travel for us. But no rest for the weary; after unpacking back at home I had to head out again to pick up Toyoko from dialysis at Pearl Ridge. This was followed by a graduation dinner at church and then another evening of Bon Dance at RKK. Hey, I told you this was a jammin’ weekend, lol!
Sunday: Up at 7 AM for final Worship Team rehearsal, followed by Sunday School and service. Finally back at home to work a bit on the church website. Then finally, a nap!
OK, I feign griping but in all actuality, this past weekend was a blast and the Lord is so good in blessing me and my family. With Him, all things are possible! Amen.
No commentsVacation: Gone in a blink of an eye
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I was on a one week “vacation” from July 4 to July 10. My wife went to Dallas for a music teacher’s conference so I had to take off from work to watch the kids. I could’ve gone with her - and left the kids at her sisters’ - but I had committed weeks before to run the A/V presentations at our church’s Vacation Bible School. BTW, feel free to visit the Palisades Baptist Church site and roam around there and please sign the guestbook. I’m the web designer and webmaster.
Needless to say “vacation” turned into quite a bit of work. The fourth found me barbequeing 3 racks of baby back ribs and 2 chicken in my Kamado grill/smoker, supervising the kids playing with novelty fireworks, and then taking my wife to the airport. Had to take my daughter to her summer school band rehearsals at Highlands Intermediate and to her physical therapy on Friday. I actually managed to finish painting the mauka wall of our house. LOL! This is the job that I started last summer. What else… The afore mentioned VBS A/V run and dry run the night before. My wife got back after church on Sunday (thank you Lord for watching over her during her trip).
We managed to get in a beach outing on Monday the 9th at our favorite beach - Ko Olina. Sadly while snorkeling there I saw just a few weke (goatfish), a puffer fish, and a mamo (sergeant fish). Usually at this time of the year I’ll see a bunch of oama (juvenile weke) near shore, a few naenae (tangs) grazing the rocky area near the outer boundary of the lagoon, and maybe a lone omilu (bluefin trevally). But the kids had a blast and my wife actually got in the water! 
A couple of interesting things:
(1) A person posted a rather strange comment on my YouTube video of our Worship Team performing “My Savior Lives” at our Easter service. I felt compelled to respond to this apparent non-believer (see 2 Timothy 4:1-5). Basically he stated that Jesus is based on the Egyptian myth of Horus. This prompted my to do some research and found that this theory is so full of holes and half-truths, it’s not even funny. I pray for this person for he once went to seminary and I have a feeling that he has other issues with his faith besides his “coming to the realization that God is consciousness”. If you clicked on the hyperlink, you’ll notice that the commenting has basically turned into a debate.
(2) Speaking of YouTube, I made a couple of videos of me doing some solo guitar/voice stuff. Lucky for you, I purposely hid my mug from view, haha:
So that was my vacation - lots of activity but a vacation nonetheless.
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