I serve a risen Savior, He's in the World Today; I know that He is living, whatever men may say.

Every year I celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ-or at least I've been celebrating it since I was at least 3. That's apparently when my parents began attending church regularly. Previous to that year I'm pretty sure I just hunted Easter eggs. And the Easter Egg dying and hunting didn't end at the age of three, but a new dynamic was added--I began to learn what Easter is all about in the Christian tradition. Of course, this is all speculation and recreation from vague memories.

Some memorable Easters include, but are not limited to:

• Getting baptized on Easter Sunday after becoming a believer 3 months prior (1981).
• Hunting Eggs at Aunt Judy & Uncle Allan's house next to Barbee's (I'm guessing 1984 or 85 based on the dress I was wearing in the pictures)
• The Tribute to the Soup Nazi (1995 or 1996--can't remember for sure)--This particular Easter came about because there were several of us who couldn't or didn't go home for Easter weekend while I was at Wazzu. So, we had 4 or 5 people make big pots of soup and ended up with about 25 or 30 students eating lunch at my house. It was a great afternoon!
• Huebner & Fortsythe Easters!!! (1997-2001) The years I lived in Kansas coming back the NW was out of the question for Easter. So, spending it with my Family away from Family, the Huebners and the Forsythe's was out of this world. Thanks for always making me feel at home!
• Yakima Valley Easters!!! (2002-2004) Being able to spend Easter with my Family after being away so many years, priceless:)

And that brings us to this year, 2007, Easter at the Rose Garden. This year, my roommates and I decided not to go home for Easter since our presence had already been requested at a "Welcome Home from Arizona, Grandma & Grandpa Fredrickson" party the two weekends after Easter. And while we live close enough to the Valley to drive home for the weekend, it makes for a long weekend and I don't usually want to go home more than once a month or every 6 weeks.

So, instead we decided to attend the service of a local church. We've attended this church off and on over the last couple of years--mostly on Saturday evenings. While we don't attend there regularly, it is a nice place to worship in a way that supplements our regular worship at the churches we normally attend. Usually the church has multiple services during the week, but the church decided they all wanted to worship together on Easter.

So, they rented the Rose Garden.

For those of you who aren't from around here, it's where are NBA Basketball Team, The Portland Trailblazers, play. I'm not sure of the exact number of people it holds, but it was pretty full. According to the local newspapers and the blog of the church's pastor, there were well over 14,000 people in attendance at the service and over 700 people baptized. It was an interesting experience.

I loved getting ready in the morning with the girls, listing to a local Christian radio station that played Keith Green's the "The Easter Song" every hour. I had a surreal moment as we sat at a stop light near our house. We were singing along with Keith Green at the top of our lungs (windows rolled up) and I had the sudden urge to roll them down. I wanted to shout, He is Risen!! For a moment I felt an overwhelming urge to run into the middle of the intersection and get the attention of the many cars passing through on their way to Fat Dave's for breakfast, Home Depot for fencing supplies, or maybe a nursery in search of the perfect landscaping project. We were celebrating an event that dramatically influenced the history of our World forever. And more importantly, I was celebrating the fact that the God of the Universe is alive and well and cares about me more than I can imagine. I wanted everyone to know how overwhelmed with love my heart was at that moment.

And then we sat in traffic for almost an hour. What we hadn't thought of was that all 14,000+ people would be trying to get off on the same exit at exactly the same moment. But, thanks to the Christian Radio station we where cheered by "The Easter Song" once an hour (yes, that's a hint of sarcasm) and we were the teeniest bit late . . . but then, so was everyone else.

We left the Rose Garden a little after 1:00 pm, when we realized that the baptisms were scheduled to go on until 5:00 pm if need be, and headed south to the OC (Oregon City, that is). We met Beth and Rea at Beth's apartment for a fabulous homemade Easter Dinner. After dinner we visited for a while until Rea brought out her guitar. We listened to a few song's she's written and then we began to worship. It's so sweet to sing praises to Jesus in a laidback, chummy environment like that.