1/25. Today I got the call. The one you dread. “L, there’s been a break in. The place has been robbed & ransacked… and it’s bad. Prepare yourself”.
When I got there the deadbolt for the cracked front door was laying on the sidewalk outside. Inside, the walls to the stations were down, & anything of value was taken that could be taken, well almost everything. The community room was trashed, the site was a mess. Knowing the cost of some of the items stolen, I knew we simply would not be replacing them.
But that’s just the 1st paragraph of this story.
When I got to that unsightly site, I was surrounded by community. When I left the site to be in the pulpit that morning, community filled 24-7 to put up her walls & clean up her isles, taking on the worst of the cleanup process. While at church, my ministry partner took pity on me, took my part in the church service that morning…and informed the community, wrapping hope around this tragedy. During worship, with face to the floor I cried but could not despair. Couldn’t shake the sense that the God I prayed to for protection of 24-7 must have something up his sleeve in all this. Before leaving church that morning to face the break in details, I was surrounded by community offering to help. When I got to the site, community met me there & worked from morning late into the night. Those who had been long time members of Renovatus, those who had been recently coming but still weren’t sure about staying at Renovatus, & those who that day had visited Renovatus for the 1st time, they were all there, getting dirty to make this place clean.
And there in those long hours, there was laughter. There were also tears & hugs, there were brainstorming sessions, & there was good coffee & rich community shared among we spent souls.
Clusters of community working well into the wee hours in tiny corners of 24-7 would occasionally be spotted taking a break & just holding each other in brief prayer. At night’s end, we all stood dog-tired around the prayer labrynth at the center of 24-7, praying & crying tears of, well… joy. Somehow God had made sense out of the chaos, & we all knew it. We all knew we had gained something that coudn’t be stolen, & something you couldn’t buy. Something we each had long been searching for & that day had been given. While we’d been working to transform the site, God was working a transformation in us. And we all knew it. When I walked into 24-7 that morning, I was cut. When I walked out of 24-7 that night, I was “my cup runneth over”.
There are still things to be done to get ready for the hundreds of people coming through the 24-7 because our Area 15 warehouse is hosting Shane Claiborne for a talk Monday night & for conversation Tuesday afternoon. But the hardest dirtiest parts are done. Whew!
Cost of motion sensor security lights, cable, & padlocks: $100
Cost of adding a security system: $500
Cost to replace personal DVD players: $250
Cost to replace personal Cd players: $100
Cost to add Gate-style storm door: $500
Cost to replace computer: $750
Cost to replace mixing board & amps: $1500
Cost of rent-a-cop to stand outside at night during upcoming 24-7prayer week:???
Cost of the amazing things that occurred that day at 24-7: Priceless.
Theme songs for the day; ’Let Go’ by Garden State.
’Let Go Now’ by Kelanie Gloeckler. And, ‘Creed’ by Rich Mulins.
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