Jesus rides in on a what?

Last week, as the staff and volunteers gathered together to ask God's blessing on the day and give direction to where everyone would best be able to help, one of the women from the neighborhood asked if she could stay for the day and help. We said, "No, you need to go home there is no where for you to help." Just kidding. Her name is Martha and she has been coming to Cross and Crown for 5-6 years.

Initially she came for food, now she comes for Bible study and her "Let's Start Talking" class that uses the Bible as the main teaching tool. Ha ha, we got her. Just like ole Jesus did it back in the day...offer food or meet some other monetary need, then present the Good News and see what happens.

Anyway, following Martha's introduction to everyone that had never met her, Paul asked Martha to do her best to describe why she comes and what she does while she is at Cross and Crown. Martha went on to describe, in English, how she comes every Tuesday morning for Bible class and every Monday for LST class. Once she was comfortable, she asked Paul if it would be ok if she shared a story that happened early on in her ESL class with her teacher. Paul agreed and so she began her story.

Martha explained how she and her teacher had been studying in Matthew of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. She stressed to us that during this study she was still somewhat new to the English language. The teacher asked Martha to read the story and then do her best to re-tell the happenings back to him. She did and it went a little something like this...

Martha - "The people see Jesus coming and they lay palm branches down on the ground for Him. They worship Him and praise Him. Jesus comes riding in on a monkey."

Teacher - ".............Jesus comes riding in on what?"

Martha - "Jesus comes riding in on a monkey."

Teacher - "A donkey. Jesus rides in on a donkey."

Martha - "Yes, Jesus rides in on a monkey."

Teacher - "No, a donkey. Jesus rides in on a donkey. Donkey."

Everyone had a good laugh, including Martha.

(This picture is the closest thing I could find of Jesus on a monkey. If I remember correctly, isn't that the "thing" from the movie, "The Never Ending Story"?.)