Elba United Methodist Church http://www.elbaumc.org/Today we attended Palm Sunday services, morning and evening, at Elba United Methodist Church were we are members. It was a nice sunny day and flowers are blooming everywhere.
As we stood to sing "Hosanna", the little children started coming down the aisles of the church waving palm branches and placed them at the base of the large cross on the left side of the front of the sancuary. The dark black cross has been in the church since the beginning of lent, and is draped with a bright purple length of cloth. On Easter Sunday, the children will again march down the aisles of the church and place fresh bouquets of flowers at the cross, completely covering the front part of the cross. Easter lilies will be placed along the railing in front of the altar. I am posting a picture for last year of the lilies. We won't be here for Easter this year since we plan to visit Jim's mother in NC on Thurs and Fri, and on to SC to our son Bill's Fri. afternoon for the week-end. We will attend the catholic Easter mass on Sunday with Bill and family.
One of my favorite Easter's was in 1986 when we were living in Haleyville, AL (Winston Co. in north Ala, near the Bankhead Forest). We bought a large house in the country near the forest and there was a small lake on the east side of the house. We had only been there about 4 months. Several of my family came to visit us that Easter. We decided to have an Easter sunrise service near the small lake, under the big oak trees with azaleas and bulbs blooming all around. I invited nearby neighbors (many I had not met) to come share with us and have breakfast. Several showed up, either walking or riding bikes, and some came in cars.
We had met a retired Methodist minister earlier and invited him to come and be our speaker. He was confined to a wheelchair and he and his wife joined us for the service. Rev. Gus Buttram lived in the Bankhead forest and had a camp meeting facility there where people came every summer. His sister lived nearby and helped cook meals there. They became our best friends. Gus had a brother in California that used to play Mr. Haney on Green Acres (Pat Buttram). We never got to meet him.
Back to our sunrise service- my nephews Andrew and Alex, made a cross our of some lumber and planted it in the ground. Andrew insisted that we drape the cross in purple, a royal color. I managed to find some purple cloth for him to use. They gathered fresh flowers and placed at the foot of the cross. We sang some Easter songs and then Mr. Gus read the Bible and talked about Jesus' rising from the dead, etc. What a beautiful service. It was cold and we really appreciated the hot coffee and homemade biscuits with ham and sausage after the service. My sisters prepared the food and we had a table in the garage where we served breakfast. This is a good way to get to know your neighbors.
After lunch we all gathered around the little pond and were soaking up the warm sun and some of the kids fishing and running about. Our neighbor's son passed by on his way to visit his parents (next farm over) and asked his mother about the new neighbors. He said they were lying ourdoors, all over the place. She had been at the breakfast and explained to him that they were visiting the Gilmers, and not all were living there!
