Thursday, March 6, 2014

Ash Wednesday Surprise

Imagine arriving for the Divine Service on Ash Wednesday and finding . . .

. . . part of the chancel gone

. . . new carpeting cut and lying loosely about

. . . new lighting being installed

. . . construction stuff lying around

. . . dust and dirt everywhere

. . . and a workman who upon questioning says: "Oh, didn't they call you?"

AAHHHHHHHH! NO THEY DIDN'T!

And people wonder why I have gray hair.

Yes, this is the one of the joys of not having our own building to meet in. The Adventists from whom we rent space decided to renovate their church and did not tell us.

Now, you might be asking, don't you have a contract? Yes, yes we do. It says we pay a certain amount on money for use of the building on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings. And yes, last night was Wednesday evening. Our night. We pay for it. Why were they there? Why did they even think they could be there, tear the place apart, and just give us a phone call the day before and we could just up and move our service? Why?



(crickets)



Sadly, this is not even the first time they've done this to us. If we had another location we could rent for anywhere near the same price (which still isn't cheap, but everything else in this area is really expensive!) we'd move. But for now, we're kind of stuck.

So we have to suck it up.

But it would be so nice . . . so nice to just be able to go to church on a Sunday morning or a midweek service and not have to set everything up, and not have to wonder: what surprises await us today?

Sigh.

Fortunately, we arrived early enough to make do, clean up, and set up for church. It was hectic and tight for time, but we did it. And the workman was very nice and helped us as well.

But this is where God has put me, to preach to these people and give them His gifts. To labor under this burden of church-homelessness. So here I stay. And the people are wonderful! I wouldn't trade them for the world. Just wish we could afford our own place.

Someday. Maybe. Someday.

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