Palm Sunday

Today was Palm Sunday, and in worship we did the You Are There program that so many people have invested so many hours in. Attendance was good-- up 15% from last week, and up 30% from last year's average attendance. The congregation expressed great appreciation for the program, and a number were in tears from the power of the story. We are very blessed to have such talented and dedicated people in the congregation.
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Sister and Short Niece came for worship. We went out to eat after the service, and they took Daughter home while I went back to the church for a meeting. Short Niece went down for Sunday School, and she came up and told her mom she wants to come here every Sunday. Sister pointed out it is a long drive for every Sunday.
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The service went very smoothly this morning. I am relieved that it is over. One of the members came up to me following the service, "Someone told me you wrote that."
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I acknowledged I had. He said, "I was sitting there thinking this is pretty good for canned program, but if you wrote it, wow, it's really good!" I thanked him. I love doing this kind of thing. I loved telling the story from the perspective of the moment. I have done lots of first person things, but it has always been from the perspective of today. To write about what the disciples and the women were thinking and feeling at the time it was happening, prior to the resurrection, was different. It seems that some of the power I was experiencing as I wrote the story was received by those who attended. I'm glad. Very glad.
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I also realized that some of our newer members don't come from a church background. It is very possible that this was the first time they heard the whole Passion story at once. I find new meaning in it every year. I hope they experienced some of that meaning. I'm exhausted, so excuse misspelled and misused words. I've caught several mistakes as I've been writing, but I'm sure I missed some, too.