Around
5:30 a.m. the other day I was sleeping peacefully when what should shatter my
repose but a rousing rendition of that all-time favorite, “Take Me Out to the
Ball Game.” It took me a second or two
to register where such melodious strains could possibly be emanating from. But as I shook off the dregs of slumber, it
suddenly came to me. “That’s me ring
tone. It’s a phone call.” Now as a pastor you might be surprised how
often I get calls in the middle of the night to inform me of trips to the
emergency room or to ask for prayer when someone is having a particularly
difficult time working their way through some personal crisis or to let me know
a baby is imminent on the horizon. And I
certainly do not mind such interruptions.
They are simply part of the lifestyle that God has called me to.
My
first move in such situations is to determine whether the call is from a family
member. If it is one of our kids, then I
usually wake up Chris to let her in on the situation. Unless of course it is Nathan telling me the
dangerous details of a fire or the ins and outs of a particularly difficult rescue. She doesn’t always want to hear of situations
where he has been at risk. If it is
someone other than family I will listen first and then determine whether she
should be involved in the ministry action.
In
this particular situation, the call was from the church’s lawyer, who owns a
home in Jamaica Beach. So this could
have gone one of several different ways.
Was it some situation regarding the church’s legal status? Had something happened while he and his
family were in town? Now before I say anything
else, you must understand, Joe has never called at 5:30 in the morning before. His calls are generally during the middle of the
day or even in the early evening. He is
a great guy to talk to, always excited and loves Jesus. A lot.
But I never had a call from him at 5:30 in the morning. Did I mention that already?
The
call was exasperating from one other standpoint. The connection was terrible. Best I could make out he was calling from
Savannah. Okay, not that unusual for him
to be on a business trip to Georgia. And
I managed to piece together that the issue had something to do with the church’s
landscaping, which Joe supervises for us.
So the issue was not pressing, but remained quite puzzling. Why call so early in the morning for
something so trivial as landscaping? I figured
up that the time difference would make it 6:30 in Georgia, so that explained a
little. He knows I am usually up by
then. But again, he has never called at
that time. Maybe he was preparing for
some lawyer-type meeting or something. I
finally managed to communicate that I really couldn’t tell what he was saying. He finally said something I did understand, “What
time is it there?” Odd. Couldn’t he figure up the time
difference? I told him, and he immediately
hung up. A few seconds later I received
a text saying that he would contact me later.
Now
I was really intrigued.
Well,
the promised contact came in the form of a very long text. He had received a call from the landscaper that
the irrigation system was not getting power to it, so we needed to get that
checked out. Fine. That was an easy one. But at 5:30 a.m.? And then came the answer to my puzzled
mind. He was not in Savannah, Georgia,
as I had assumed. He was in Masai Mara
in the Savannah region of … Africa. I’m
not sure if he was on a mission trip or just a vacation, but he sent a great
picture of his family arm in arm with some of the locals. Wow. There’s
one for the pastor’s book of reminisces.
1
Corinthians 1:9 says, “God, who has
called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
Father,
take care of Joe and his family on their travels. Bless their efforts over there and bring them
safely back home. Amen.
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