Palm Sunday

School children on Palm Sunday

When the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out:

Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name

of the Lord.
John 12:13

It is Palm Sunday in Malava and at the parish of St. Teresa nearly one-thousand villagers were in attendance for the one and only 9:00AM mass.

The mass began outside at the nearby Isanjiro Primary School on the parish grounds. Father Paul, the pastor at St. Teresa, began by blessing the crowd with holy water and then read from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 19.

There are many other churches of many other denominations in Malava that make a lot of noise in the village every Sunday, but today it was our turn.

Palms were raised by the crowd and the procession began.

Father Paul directs the people in procession

Choir members sing with palms raised

An altar boy with a cross leads the procession

Led by a single altar boy and followed by a 30 member choir, the crowd, with palms in hand, paraded, danced, and sang through the village and proceeded down it’s main road for all to see before arriving back at the church.

The procession coming down the road to St. Teresa Church

Children dance with their palms in the procession.

A little boy takes part in the celebration

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a public display of faith in the United States.

Kenyans have a real passion for what they believe.