Day 10 - Palm Sunday

I was definitely a sad sack at my shift in the Kitchen today. I am tired, and I am sad about missing Palm Sunday with St. John’s. Obviously I knew that this was the price of doing work here in Poland but it doesn’t mean that it feels good right now. One of the volunteers came up to me with a big smile on his masked face and said “Happy Palm Sunday! He was the only person who even seemed to know what Palm Sunday was. I am somewhat surprised to find that there are not more spiritual or religious people doing this work. Obviously World Central Kitchen is not a religious organization, but somehow I always think about Christians as being the kind of people who want to feed other which they do in lots of ways, and through lots of charitable organizations. Today I definitely felt like an outsider or a loner because so few people seemed to even understand any reference to God at all. One young man named Joshua (who actually knew that his name meant Jesus), said that he would have liked to tour some of the churches in the local area with me. That was sort of a lovely thing. But he clearly has no connection to spirituality beyond the physical manifestation in those beautiful buildings.

So I found it hard to make salami sandwiches with any kind of real enthusiasm today. I know they are shooting for at least 5000 sandwiches to hand out tonight. And that is such a sobering number. So before I go too far let us remember that there are 5000 people who need food tonight in one very small part of this world. People who are crossing the border, people who are coming into the train station, people with children and pets who do not necessarily know where they’re going to go from here. I kept saying to myself as I made those sandwiches “This is going to be the best sandwich that (this person) has ever eaten.” Sometimes they need more than one sandwich because they know they’re going to be traveling for a while. We purposely put on a lot of cheese and a lot of pepperoni and a lot of sauce. The chefs don’t want even one mouth full of dry bread in someone’s mouth. They want there to be a lot of calories and protein for the journey ahead whatever it may be.

And maybe that’s the best part of this. Today is Palm Sunday and Jesus began his own journey. Many people who traveled with him thought that it was a journey of death but it turned out to be a journey of new life didn’t it? I know we all have to go through Holy Week, and sometimes that is hard, because Holy Week is dark and difficult.

 

    

In Poland they have a very unique way of celebrating Palm Sunday. They carry floral wands, for want of a better word, with palms around the handle. They are beautiful and colorful and while I did not get the opportunity to see how they used them in the service, so many people were walking down the street carrying these colorful and beautifully made wands of palm and flowers.

The message is the same. The message is that out of the difficult journey we will undergo this week, there is new life in Jesus. I feel like I need to say that again to make sure that I hear it myself – – there is new life in Jesus.

May we all hold onto this reality.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others

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