EASTER SPECIAL

DEATH AND RESSURECTION OF JESUS CHRIST









 WHAT DO YOU THINK? - We have all sinned and deserve God's judgment. God, the Father, sent His only Son to satisfy that judgment for those who believe in Him. Jesus, the creator and eternal Son of God, who lived a sinless life, loves us so much that He died for our sins, taking the punishment that we deserve, was buried, and rose from the dead according to the Bible. If you truly believe and trust this in your heart, receiving Jesus alone as your Savior, declaring, "Jesus is Lord," you will be saved from judgment and spend eternity with God in heaven.
Easter Sunday is the day of rejoicing that follows the sorrow of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. For most Christians, Easter is the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It bears witness to God's enduring promise of eternal life. As the climax of Holy Week, Easter is a time of hope and assurance. It is humanity's turning point from destruction to glory and salvation.

What is the Real Meaning of Easter?
For the first three centuries, the Church celebrated the real meaning of Easter in connection with the Jewish Passover. The Passover began on the evening of the full moon in the Jewish month of Nisan, which coincided with the Spring Equinox.

As the crucifixion occurred on the first day of the feast, early Christians found a scriptural correlation between Jesus and the sacrificial lamb. The Apostle Paul refers to this in his first letter to the Corinthian Church where he states: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Corinthians 5:7-8) The flexibility of Passover allowed the early Church to celebrate Christ's resurrection any day of the week on which the third day of the festival happened to fall.

As the Western Church began to emerge, its celebration of Easter coincided with the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, which caused some contention with the Eastern Church. The matter came to the attention of the Emperor Constantine, who convened the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The council ruled that all churches would celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the Spring Equinox. This became the standard for the Church under the Julian calendar until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII revised the calendar and the Easter tables by adding the leap-year rule.

What are Easter and the Resurrection?
The name "Easter" did not become associated with the resurrection of Christ until the second century. It most likely comes from the ancient Saxon spring festival called Ostern. Some Easter customs also originate from ancient spring festivals. The tradition of the Easter Bunny has its origins with the Saxons, who would adorn their villages with rabbits carved from wood. The giving of brightly colored eggs was a custom in the Middle East during the spring. In many cultures, the egg symbolized rebirth or renewal.

Easter is a time of rejoicing for Christians. The Roman Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox Churches commemorate the resurrection of Christ with the Easter Mass, which includes special prayers, litanies, psalms and hymns. In some Churches throughout Spain, Easter customs include special processions to honor the Virgin Mary. Protestant Churches have Easter services that include Communion, special sermons and sometimes Easter plays. Many Evangelical Churches have sunrise services that include much singing and rejoicing.

The purest meaning of Easter is the celebration of the resurrection or rising of Christ to heaven, which is the foundation of Christianity. Easter Sunday reminds all Christians of their h


MEMBERS OF THE RULING APC PARTY IN NIGERIA



Yesterday President Buhari attended the APC National Executive Committee Meeting at the APC Party Headquarters
President Buhari with R-L Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, APC National Chairman John Odigie Oyegun, Speaker House of Representative Hon. Yakubu Dogara, Deputy National Chairman (North) Senator Lawal Shuaibu and APC National Secretary Alhaji Mai Mala Buni .



SPECIAL EASTER DELICACY YOU CAN TRY THIS SEASON

River state native soup is one of my favorite Nigerian soup, it happens to be my favorite native soup. You can follow either my written instruction or the embedded video at the bottom of the page, I make videos for the majority of my recipes on this site.
I grew up in River state Nigeria, did both my primary and secondary education in a very popular part of the state. During this time, I tasted almost every indigenous food and also learned to make quite a number of them. The good thing is that they share similar recipes with the Igbos.
So if you are dating an Ikwerre guy or married to a man/woman from River State Nigeria you can go ahead and serve him/her some of our Igbo foods on this page.
Let’s get back to the topic of the day, River state native soup… here goes… Gbam!!!

Frankly, I can’t give a detailed account of the origin of this soup but what I do know is that it is very popular in River state and it is served in major restaurants and eateries. Although, they avoid some of the expensive ingredients like stock fish, ngolo and shrimps.
For some reason I just like to try new recipes once they appealed to me, I like to ask questions and try them out in my own kitchen, that is perhaps the reason I have learned to make virtually all the Foods Eaten In Nigeria.

How To Make River State Native Soup

Below are the ingredients for making the popular native soup in River state Nigeria, like I always assert; the ingredients would serve about 6×2 people, you can increase or decrease the quantity of each ingredient depending on the number people would be eating your food.
You can make this soup as simple as possible, if you can’t find the ngolo and prowns where you live, you can leave them out. I can’t find the english name for Ngolo, is it clams?

• 1KG of meat
• 10 pieces of stock fish ear (nti okporoko)
• 2 cups of sliced uziza leaves
• 2 medium size dry fish
• Cocoa yam as thickener (see image)
• 15-20cl of palm oil
• 2-3 cubes of maggi or knorr
• 1-2 cups of periwinkles
• 1-2 cups of ngolo
• 1 cup of ground crayfish
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• two handful of fresh prowns
• 2 spoons of ofor (alternative thickener)

What you find above is a plate containing Ngolo, Periwinkles (isam) and prowns, the exact way they are sold in Nigerian markets. You can purchase them from every major Nigerian markets, especially in the states sorrounded by water.
The cocoayam should be about 1KG, the ofor serves as alternative thickener (incase the cocoayam didn’t thicken the soup), in most cases, you wouldn’t use it (the ofor)

How to Prepare Nigerian Native soup

You might wanna start by parboiling the shrimps, wash and parboil with a small pot, add half cup of water, a cube of maggi and a pinch of salt, allow to boil for up to 5 minutes, remove the head and set aside in a clean plate.

STEP 1
I like to start by parboiling the meat with all the necessary ingredients, most cooks forget that parboiling the meat and obtaining the stock (water left after parboiling) is an important part of Nigerian cooking process.
I like to parboil the meat with just 2 cubes of maggi, 1 bulb of onions, salt and maybe a sachet of onga classic (a very popular Nigerian spice for soup). My choice of meat is hard to cook, takes about 50-60 minutes before you commence with the rest of the cooking.
Step 2
Use this time to prepare the other ingredients; wash and slice the uziza leaves.
Soak the stock fish and dry fish with boiled water and wash thoroughly to remove sand and center bone. Grind the crayfish and fresh pepper also, you can grind together or grind separately.
Step 3
Add the washed dry fish/stock fish in the boiling meat on fire, after about 30-50 minutes of cooking just the meat. Once they are soft and the water is almost dried (about 1 cup left) add about 5-7 cups of water, palm oil and the ground crayfish. This step was visually demonstrated in the video below, so if you like watching better than reading you can scroll down to see the video.
Allow the soup to cook for another ten minutes before adding salt to taste, a cube of maggi. Maggi is a natural food sweetener, used in making almost all the {foods eaten in Nigeria}
Step 4
Add the washed/cleaned ngolo, stir, add the cocoayam, allow to dissolve in 8-10 minutes, if it is still very watery you can add a spoon of ofor, cook for three minutes before adding the periwinkles, prown and sliced uziza leaves which is likely the last ingredient while making River state native soup.
Allow to simmer for another five minutes and you just made Nigerian’s most popular native soup.
The video is that of an earlier version of this soup, it should give you a clue as to how to make river state native soup, I used ofor as the thickener instead of cocoayam; I also ommited the ngolo.