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.
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.
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