Christmas Eve Break-in

I arrived at church this morning to see two police cars parked in front of our church. There was only one other car in the lot and that belonged to our security guy who arrives early to unlock everything. As soon as I entered the foyer I could see why the police where there: the foyer had been ransacked and the door leading into the worship center had been broken into. Within a few minutes after I arrived, the police decided that the church needed to be sealed up as a crime scene. With five services planned for the day, they informed us that we would not be able to access the worship center, Preschool and nursery area or most of our adult bible study rooms for at least three hours.

With the help of about forty people, we quickly prepared a makeshift worship area in another building. No hymnals, no computer, no projectors, no sound equipment, no music stands, etc. We scavenged for anything we could find. The youth pastor brought out the youth ministries projector, the sound team found some microphones in fellowship hall, we used an old, out-of-tune piano, the flute player drove home to bring some stands for the instrumentalists, etc. By 8:00 AM we had enough put together to hold a worship service for a few hundred. By 9:30 we had enough put together for our Contemporary service and about five hundred. By 11:00 AM we could relax a little as we had about 400 for our second Traditional service. We were able to use our worship center for the evening services, which was very good as we had over 800 at one of the two services.

The thief only found $28 cash, but did extensive damage to multiple doors and our safes. We were very fortunate that they did not purposely destroy sound equipment, computers, etc. I knew today was going to be very tiring with five worship services, but the added chores of relocating everything this morning wore me out. It is good to be home resting. May God bless everyone and Merry Christmas.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dirty Feet

Image
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.” Isaiah 52:7 (NIV) I have never been very comfortable in shoes. It really doesn’t matter whether they have great arch support, ultra extreme amounts of cushioning, or how much they cost. The first thing I do when I arrive home is take off my shoes and stretch my once imprisoned feet by bending them at the arches and wiggling my toes. I then remove my socks and begin to feel my feet relax as the fresh air washes over my tingling, sometimes sweaty, toes. Pretty picture, I know. It must be the right thing to do. A billion Chinese could not be wrong. My mother could not be wrong. After all, she was the one who always told me to, “Take off your dirty shoes before you come in here. I just finished mopping this floor and I don’t want mud tracked all over my clean house.” It became a normal ritual around our house to put the dozen or so shoes away before company was expected. My mother didn’t want dirty f...
Read more

Pampered and Pacified

Author J.M. Barrie created the character that never wanted to grow up. Peter Pan, also the title of his famous book, did not want to become an adult and be forced to deal with all of the stress and struggles that came with the transformation. So Peter found his way to Neverland where, along with his lost boys, he could remain a carefree child forever. But those who know the story also know that carefree was not all that it promised for villainous Captain Hook constantly lurked around the corners, and then there was that tantalizing Wendy who stole Peter’s heart before he even knew what hit him. Millions of Americans have seemed to follow in the footsteps of Peter Pan. We have become a nation that no longer values the virtues of adulthood: especially responsibility, strong work ethic, self-dependence, selflessness, and community awareness. You don’t have far to look in our American society before you see lost boys, and girls, running around everywhere. Grown men and women who want ...
Read more

Ephesians 5 - Our Life of Love

Image
When I have learned to love God more than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.” C.S. Lewis In a Nutshell Paul encourages Christians to be imitators of God and to walk in love. Don’t fall into a life of sin, but rather stand against sin and try to expose it. Use your time wisely as you follow God’s will. Let the Holy Spirit direct and influence your behaviors. As you do this, husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and wives should respect and submit to their husbands. The Power of Example In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin tells of the time he wanted to convince the citizens of Philadelphia to light the streets at night as a protection against crime and as a convenience for evening activities. Failing to convince them by his words, he decided to show his neighbors how compelling a single light could be. He bought an attractive lantern, polished the glass, and placed in on a long bracket that extended from the f...
Read more