It sort of becomes a church tradition that we celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in the park. Within the past few years, we have been to most of the public parks in Colorado Springs. This year, we celebrated the Father’s Day in the America the Beautiful Park, which we haven’t been to before. What makes this park special is its water fountain, which has a structural O-shape that spins around and a water wall showers down from it. I don’t know the significance symbolic meaning of it but it looks cool nonetheless. I was a little surprised to see the water fountain was running. I heard due to state budget cutback, the water fountain was going to be out of service for the summer, but apparently some lady donated money to keep it running.
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There was only one pavilion in the park, and we reserved it for the service. We began service around 10:30AM. My brother, Bao lead the program and he did a great job. There were several tributes, poems, and thoughts dedicates to Fathers besides the message from our pastor. Bao also shared his very emotional testimony, about how much love Dad has treated him that has much to do in turning his life around. I’m very glad to see the transformation God did in his life. It’s truly made possible by God, but no doubt with countless of prayers and love from Mom and Dad.
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A highlight of the event for me was a chance to sing with Grace, my daughter. Actually, it wasn’t planned. Earlier in the week, I wanted to sing the song “Your Favorite Name is Father” by Newsong, but I haven’t be able to play the guitar for the song yet. Fortunately, I found a sheet music for it, and started practice on Saturday. Grace heard me sang it couple times when I was practicing. On Sunday morning, when we were on the way to the park, I was singing and hear Grace was singing along the chorus part. So I then asked her to sing with me. She echoed what I sang in the verse, and sang the chorus together with me. I think she did beautifully. It is such a wonderful song and meaningful lyric, but it has become even more meaningful when Grace sang it with me.
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If you are unfamiliar with the song, check it out on this YouTube video.
YouTube - Your Favorite Name is Father - by NewSong
With many tributes and messages from the Fathers, our program stretched a bit passed 12:30pm. After presenting gifts for all the Fathers, we ended our service with closing prayer. I was very hungry, but fortunately, the ladies in the church had already prepared wonderful lunch for us, readily in boxes. Don’t they look awesome? There were several dessert dishes too, but I was too busy eating and forgot to take pictures.
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After lunch, we took several group pictures, hang around a bit. Many people came to the park now, and it just got way warmer. We brought volleybal net but apparently they don’t allow us to set it up the field, so we decided to play volleyball in a different park where we used to play. We cleaned up and headed home.
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We and couple friends just hung out, watched soccer game, and the pictures from Linh and Peter’s Vietnam trip, then played some board game. My sisters, Linh and Nguyen, prepared the chicken wings and steaks. We had a sit-down BBQ for dinner, in the backyard, and it was great. Lots of fun and foods.
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Around 8:30pm, we head to the park and played some volleyball until 11:00pm. Ah, not to be surprised but we play volleyball this late all the time, after church service, every summer. That concludes a long, eventful, and memorable Father’s Day for me.