Helping Hands
It's a bizarre experience to arrive on the scene of a disaster. All routines, patterns, and assumptions are discarded and replaced by a new reality. Anyone who has watched helplessly as a house burns to the ground or as a building is demolished by high winds knows how this feels.
I had a similar circumstance, though on a smaller scale, this past Saturday when I walked into the lower level at church. "Is that water in the hallway?" my daughter asked. It was indeed. A lot of water. Several thousand gallons of water had poured out of a broken water line on the third story and was spreading throughout the church. All three levels experienced water damage, including carpeting, ceiling tiles, and walls. Affected rooms included the narthex, fellowship hall, classrooms, and Sanctuary. It was a mess.
After turning off the water, I made a few phone calls to the pastor and property committee members. Mitigation professionals came to remove the water and discard soiled carpet...but there was still a lot of work that needed to be done in order to "prepare the way" for Palm Sunday. Items needed to be sorted and either disposed of or moved to a dry location. Equipment and furniture had to be relocated. Temporary flooring needed to be put in place.
A few more phone calls yielded additional people. Kiersten (age 5) said it best, when she told her older brother, "We need to go help. If our house had flooded our church friends would be here to help us!"
People of all ages worked throughout the afternoon and late into the night and made it possible for worship to happen the following day. It was a day that was both heartbreaking and redeeming. As people responded with patience and generosity throughout the weekend, I was reminded of the myriad ways God's Spirit works through people to make the best of a bad situation.
I had a similar circumstance, though on a smaller scale, this past Saturday when I walked into the lower level at church. "Is that water in the hallway?" my daughter asked. It was indeed. A lot of water. Several thousand gallons of water had poured out of a broken water line on the third story and was spreading throughout the church. All three levels experienced water damage, including carpeting, ceiling tiles, and walls. Affected rooms included the narthex, fellowship hall, classrooms, and Sanctuary. It was a mess.
After turning off the water, I made a few phone calls to the pastor and property committee members. Mitigation professionals came to remove the water and discard soiled carpet...but there was still a lot of work that needed to be done in order to "prepare the way" for Palm Sunday. Items needed to be sorted and either disposed of or moved to a dry location. Equipment and furniture had to be relocated. Temporary flooring needed to be put in place.
A few more phone calls yielded additional people. Kiersten (age 5) said it best, when she told her older brother, "We need to go help. If our house had flooded our church friends would be here to help us!"
People of all ages worked throughout the afternoon and late into the night and made it possible for worship to happen the following day. It was a day that was both heartbreaking and redeeming. As people responded with patience and generosity throughout the weekend, I was reminded of the myriad ways God's Spirit works through people to make the best of a bad situation.
