Resilience

Today I interviewed the pastor of a church whose sanctuary had been burglarized.  The church’s fellowship hall was flooded when the thieves yanked the ice machine out of the wall, leaving a gushing water line behind.  All of the electronic equipment and computers were taken; even food out of the refrigerator was gone.  The pastor’s gift from the congregation – a collectors’ edition Harley Davidson watch – was stolen.  The entire place had been violated.

How do you break into and steal from a church?  How do you sleep at night after that?  Why am I surprised?

I met the pastor’s wife and daughter and grandson; I met a few members of the congregation.  They were saddened, but not defeated.  They were still smiling.  They had work ahead of them, but they weren’t grumbling about it.  The pastor told me he just hopes whoever did it, won’t do it again.  He’d pastured a church before that had been broken into 3 times, until they had an alarm system installed.

It’s a beautiful little church at the end of a winding country road.  Trees line the road most of the way down, and in the light of day it seems like the last place in the world that would need an alarm system.  Seems like, anyway.  

I’m such a tourist.