Had my first middle of the night crisis!
The phone rang somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00am and grogilly I answered.
All of a sudden there was this very excited police chief on the other side asking me if I was the new pastor at Port of Grace, and how long it would take me to get to the church? I think I mumbled five minutes and arrived a few minutes later at the church to a fire truck and several police cars parked in front of the church. Of immediate interest was that the main church door was cast aside off of it's hinges.
I was greeted by like (50) firemen as I got out of the van. Ok, it must have been 15, but it felt like 50.
Now, I've got you hooked.
Well, here's the deal. There was a storm last night. And we've been having a problem with our fire alarm. When there's a power outage, something goes wrong and our fire alarm goes off. Well, when they arrived and were about to break into our lock box, that would keep a church key available so they could get in, there wasn't one, because the last time they broke in they destroyed it. So, they just took the main door of the hinges and did their thing.
Anyway, we're in the process of getting this stuff fixed. The awkward part about this all. Were this to happen in TO, and I would have have several very irritated firemen to deal with. Instead, these guys were all really nice (I know you're getting tired of hearing this stuff) but they really were. He even asked if I had an extra key that I could give him so that they could carry it around with them in the truck for the next time. "The next time?" They just expect that they'll have to come back and do this again. I was expecting a lecture on how if this happens again, they won't come and all that jazz. You could argue with a lack of fires, this is fun because they get to play fire trucks and all that stuff. They certainly had enough firemen there, to a citywide fire out :)
Okay, I won't bore you...about fifteen minutes later the door was back on, locked, and I was back in bed wondering whether it was just a dream.
My first middle of the night crisis is under my belt! Okay, I don't wear a belt...whatever.
Posted by edWe have a water leak at our church and everytime there is significant rainfall the alarm goes off and either Pastor Roy (head pastor) or Pastor Jared (son and also a pastor at the church) have to respond.
I have sympathy for all of you ..
Posted by: IanLOL! Oh, the charm will wear off, I'm sure.
I think Gord's gonna be happy they're calling you now. Come to think of it... small town or what... how did they know to call you?? LOL!
Posted by: wilsonianMaybe you need another fire panel? We have a used one that we need to unload. ;)
Posted by: DarrylYou know Wilsonian, maybe I still have city brain, but I was thinking the same thing...How could they possibly know to call Ed? I was awake the whole time thinking, it's all a ploy! Someone's just trying to lure Ed away from the house so they can come in with just a very pegnant woman and three little kids in the house! I didn't sleep a wink until he was back with me! Yup, I still got city slicker mentality!
Vun :-)
That's ok, you keep your fire panel...we'll do what we need to but if we can at all avoid it, we aint' going down that journey anytime soon :)
and yes, how did they know to call me, unless they called Gord and he told them to call me, Hummmm, must check!!!!!
Posted by: edI hope you know you've given all the practical jokers out there a lot of ideas.
Posted by: Darrylcould be dangerous :)
Posted by: ed