Monday, April 6, 2020

April 6 – “The Palm Sunday Report”


Ah, the day after Palm Sunday.  Great time to reflect on our online worship. I suppose.  It’s hard to take attendance per se.  Lauren sent me a selfie of her in the parking lot at church, listening to the broadcast, so technically we had an attendance of one.  I’m not completely sure how to reach the statistics Facebook provides about the Facebook Live broadcast, but between the two posts I put up – on the Seaside page and then sharing it to my page (sounds like I really know what I’m doing, doesn’t it?) – the tally shows 635 views.  There were also eight or ten shares, so I don’t know how many saw those. 

As for the Palms on the Porch give-away of palm crosses on the church porch and here at home, I don’t know how many we totaled.  Guess I should have counted more carefully before I put them out.  I know I don’t have very many left in my basket here at home.  Haven’t been up to the church yet to check that one.  Lauren did say she saw several people stop by while she was in the parking lot.  And we even had a neighbor stop by on his bicycle.  I saw him through the front door.  He waved and made the sign of the cross. 

Here’s a special thank you shout-out to our Palm Sunday worship special guests.  Dianne did a great job with the welcome.  And Dianne, I do miss the way you hover over seats like a mother hen when you do your prayer before worship begins. Some of our awesome Seaside kids were involved, too.  Cailyn, Lexie, Sophie and EmmaLee all did great jobs reading their praise psalms.  I am really proud of you, girls.

Sunday afternoon we actually had some guests stop by the house, ostensibly to pick up palm crosses.  I always wanted to use that word in a sentence.  It means “allegedly.”  Not to say they didn’t get palm crosses; they did.  But as far as I was selfishly concerned, they came to visit us.  Hey.  We extroverts need a little contact with people, even if we can’t get a hug.  And yes, we social distanced …

Here’s some big news.  Chris finished the t-shirt quilt she has been working on.  Lots of Blood (she poked herself with a needle a time or two), Sweat (it took months to finish), and Tears (well, I never actually saw her cry, but there were more than a few groans of frustration and anguish) went into that thing.  The presentation was recorded on facetime for us to watch.  Ed seemed to like it.  Guess that means he was either being nice for the camera or he’s gonna keep it.  Stay warm, Ed. 

Psalms 33:1 says, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; for it is fitting for the upright to praise him.”

Father, thank you for all the folks who are tuning in for the worship time.  And thanks for the ones who braved a visit yesterday.  It’s encouraging to see evidence that we are not along in the midst of this quarantine.  Amen.

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