Branches in the Road
You might have heard that we had a tornado in Allendale on Saturday. That is not true. We had TORNADOES Saturday evening. The great news is that everyone is OK, but we have a lot of damage. One of my church members lost her home. What remains of it is scattered in the peach orchard across the highway. Her daughter lives next door, and her home is severely damaged.
http://www.wjbf.com/midatlantic/jbf/news_index.apx.-content-articles-JBF-2008-03-17-0001.html

A lot of trees and powerlines are down. A lot of roofs around here have at least one tree on them. Of course, people are still frightened and heartbroken. Cleanup has commenced on a variety of levels.

We came to Sunday morning services without electricity. We stuck with the Palm Sunday text from Matthew because there were a number of pharases there to resonate with. We understood quite well what it meant to be a "city in turmoil" (Mt 21:10). We all had shouted our "Hosannas in the highest", first in the original meaning of term "save us", and then in sighs of relief learing everyone was OK, and again in praises seeing FEMA representatives and Disaster Relief volunteers showing up quickly.

We came to Palm Sunday with branches in the road already, an appropriate carpet upon which Jesus can ride into this town. It looks like were heading into a very interesting Holy Week.

Of course, our tornadoes, weren't the only ones in SC one Saturday. Branchville is home to many childhood memories for me. That's where I got my haricut, celebrated Railroad Daze, and enjoyed many a cone of soft-serve ice cream. The Churn was one of the landmarks destroyed by a tornado. Here's an article about Branchville . . .
http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2008/03/17/news/13010723.txt