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SUNDAY MORNING from the pastor July 6, 2003 Today is my second anniversary as the pastor of Grace Church. Those of you who were here at the time will recall that I had trouble moving in. For the previous 13 years, I had been living in the parsonage (the house provided by the church as the pastor's residence) in Glen Carbon, Illinois. It would be sold the afternoon of June 29, and new owners would take possession that afternoon and move in. I would need to be out by noon. No problem. I had arranged for a moving company to show up at 9 a.m. that day. They would be able to load the truck and get me to Urbana by supper. Some family named the "Ricketts" had called ahead and invited us to come next door and eat with them once we got in town. As I write this memoir, I can't remember the name of the moving company. But I don't feel too bad, as they apparently didn't remember that they were supposed to show up at 9 a.m. and move me to Urbana. They also apparently didn't remember to show up in the office that day. Nor did they answer their telephones. I learned a valuable lesson then: Don't ever take all your belongings out into the front yard until AFTER the moving van has shown up. Now, in my defense, that didn't seem so stupid--at the time. At first, I thought that since the moving van was a little late, I would go ahead and get all the furniture out in the yard to help speed things along. The new owners would be there in a few hours expecting a vacant house. And I needed to hurry up and get to Urbana because these people called the "Ricketts" would have dinner on the table by 6. By two in the afternoon, I resigned myself to the fact that I'd been stood up by my moving company. I also learned that it is not easy to find a new moving company who will come to your front yard and pick up all your belongings on two hours notice. Meanwhile, the folks who bought the house had already arrived and filled it with their stuff. There was no going back. Furthermore, the weather forecast was calling for heavy thunderstorms at 6 p.m. Sadly for me, all the rental trucks from reputable businesses in the St. Louis area were already in use--it was the fourth of July weekend. And Pat Price, who was working the church office here at Grace Church that day, was frantically calling around to figure out if there were enough pick-up trucks in the congregation to organize a convoy and come over for a rescue attempt. Folks here had been hoping that their new pastor would be a stable and steady leader, a man of foresight and organization. Pat's last minute efforts to organize a convoy on his behalf didn't bode well. By late afternoon, I tapped one of the unsavory connections I had made in the St. Louis area and came up with what might be called a truck. Church folks would help load and unload, and I would drive. It took two trips and two days. More than forty people helped--between the Glen Carbon folks and the Urbana folks. And I learned that these people called the "Ricketts" don= t serve supper at midnight, but if you ask real nice, they= ll let you come the next day. --Mike |
