Today was definitely not the easiest Lord's Day I've had.
Saturday was busy but gratifying, we'd been planning a Rummage sale for several weeks to raise money for our building fund (we've run out of space in our current location) and with God's blessings and the hard work of many of our members, the sale raised $1100 for the fund. I'd planned to take the rest of the day off, but just as the sale was ending, I received a call that a battered woman was asking to see a Pastor, and spent the rest of the day helping her. Still not a bad day at all.
The Lord's Day was a different kettle of fish entirely. During our morning service at about 11:45 the church and my car were burglarized. Specifically, a man pretending to be interested in worshipping at the church came into the church office and took the zippered bag containing the deposit from last week and
all the money that was made during the Rummage Sale we had the day before (about $1100 in cash), then he went out to the parking lot and broke the window to my truck and stole my wife's handbag, and then attempted unsuccessfully to break the window to the another family's mini-van which set off their alarm and alerted us to what was going on. He then took off pursued by our landlord who saw him attempt to break the second window, and being a good old boy grabbed his gun and jumped in his pick-up to pursue him. Our local police force however, responded to his 911 call by asking him who he was, why he was calling, why he was chasing someone, etc. and made no attempt to match him up with a cruiser. Eventually since the bad guy was doing more than 80mph he gave up. The license plate turned out to be a fake so the guy got away scot-free.
Our Session and Deacons met this evening to review options for increasing security at the church and this is what we have decided:
1) We will be installing an additional security camera to cover the front office area and possibly the parking lot of the church.
2) Every Sunday, one of the men will be assigned to the cry room. Whenever the door chime sounds he will go and greet any latecomers and if they are not regular church attenders, he will ensure that they either go into the worship service or leave. In between that time he will keep an eye on the monitor for the security camera.
3) From now on all deposits will be made on the same day they are received. We will have to pay an additional charge for this service, but it is worth it not to have any money on the premises.
If you have any security suggestions from your own experience, we would be grateful to hear them.
I will be going to see the Fayetteville police tomorrow to share with them some of our concerns regarding their response. Apart from not helping with the chase, after our own 911 call, they took 30 minutes to arrive on scene. The officer who responded never got out of his patrol car, even though the parking lot was clearly full of concerned church-goers. Even after we reported that $1100 dollars was stolen from the building, he never attempted to enter the premises and other than taking down a report no police work was done. This is despite the fact that there were two witnesses, we had a description of the man and the car, and he must have left prints on two vehicles and the church door and office. We could have done everything that was done via a phone report. I'm not sure if this is SOP but it's lousy community relations work.
In any event we are praying for the individual who robbed us, both that he would be apprehended that he might not continue doing this, and that he would be converted so that he would be both forgiven and never desire this again. Also, several of our families have husbands who have been deployed for many months and a couple of the wives were shaken by the event.
I won't lie and say this isn't a disappointment, and an expensive inconvenience, but I can honestly say we are at peace about it, and grateful to God for many things, not the least of which is that ours was the only car that was burglarized (if any car had to be, that is honestly what we would have asked for), and that no one was injured. Our only real worry at this point is the identity theft issue as my wife's ID and checks were stolen.
Ultimately all that was lost is a little of the dust of the world, which will ultimately do the person who took it far more harm than good. This evening I went to visit a retired Air Force Officers wife who is dying in the hospital and it further helped to put things in eternal perspective, although my heart breaks at how much suffering she is going through and how hard it is to see a husband watching his wife in so much pain, there is an end coming soon to that, and then she will be in that place of which it is written:
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." To tell the truth, I can't wait for that myself.
Ok, Seagoon's tough day ramble over....
- SEAGOON
