A story in pictures: Palm Sunday...posted 2 months later :-(

Palm Sunday 2012

Starting my 1/2 hour motorbike ride up into the hills, to the 

tiny village of Gera, carrying my Bible, sermon notes and 

this palm branch from SEEK's beach. This transport reminded

me of the surfer who solved the parking problem at Waikiki  

by mounting brackets on his bicycle to carry his surfboard.

I love Palm Sunday, almost as much as Easter. And I'd been told that many churches here don't celebrate these 'high holidays". So I was delighted to be invited to preach at a small, remote village church on April 1, which happened to be Palm Sunday; that way I'd be able to guarantee my participation in a Palm Sunday celebration!! I really enjoyed my study of the different Gospel accounts while preparing the sermon. And then it was wonderful to infuse the service at the fledgling Gera Pentecostal Church with Palm Sunday elements.  
We were all a bit water-logged, as it was raining heavily at the beginning of the day, when I gathered this large palm branch from the SEEK beachfront.  Cutting the palms from the branch, everyone got at least 2 palms.  Then with the help of an excellent keyboardist, and a congregation used to singing and dancing, we waved the palms and sang the words from  Matthew chapter 21, verse 9:  "'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!"  

The Gera church meets under this tree; a generator provides

power for the keyboard (at left). Note the huge speaker hung

on the tree! Fortunately the heavy, early morning rain stopped!

 

Even the little kids are participating, while also exploring the surrounding area....

After the service was over, this young boy rode by on this donkey.  The timing was too perfect; I had to ask him to stop so I could take his picture.  Meanwhile I thought: "I sure hope the donkey colt Jesus was sitting on was bigger than this one!!!"