"We've really said, 'What are your needs? What do you want?' " he said. "The idea isn't that we're imposing ourselves on these people, but to raise people up. We're not just sending money, we have friends literally all over Africa."
Every five years or so, the church sends a delegation to Africa to check out how the villagers are doing and meet with church officials. McIntyre has made the trip twice, observing how villagers involve their whole families in the cross-making enterprise.
Bill Rockefeller, above, unpacks boxes of palm crosses shipped from Tanzania to St. John's Episcopal Church in Olney. Below, the Rev. Benjamin Shambaugh, the pastor at St. John's.
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"You're talking about villages that, in this day and age, are still made of sticks," he said. The villagers "fold crosses under cashew trees, keeping the baboons away" from the crop.
Back in Olney, the marketing and distribution of the palm crosses is the responsibility of Martineau, who counts on about 30 volunteers to help her. She works out of a small office in the rectory, and the mission's distribution center consists of a wooden table in the back of the parish hall.
Volunteers grab large cartons of crosses packed in small plastic bags from two sheds outside the hall and then use the table to divide them into smaller boxes according to purchase orders.
Although African Palms ships crosses all year, the busy season runs from January through Easter, Martineau said. A truck from the Olney post office comes twice a week to pick up the parcels for shipping.
Boxes of all sizes lined a wall of the parish hall just days before Palm Sunday, and children who attend the church school munched on pizza at nearby tables. Church member Bill Rockefeller, a 68-year-old retired dentist from Silver Spring, filled a small box as he explained what draws him to help out.
"I thought it would be a good way to do volunteer work, and it's all so seasonal," he said. "Usually by April, we're pretty well done so that cuts us loose."
Although the mission has become synonymous with St. John's, Shambaugh said his visit to Africa and correspondence with those involved show that African Palms touches people all over that continent. In the fall, the London distribution arm of African Palms, which is still run by Talbot, will close and African Palms USA will become the sole distributor of the palm crosses.
"You get the sense when you meet these people that it's huge, it really does help," Shambaugh said.
