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MIRACULOUS INTERVENTION @ CROSSROADS
Last night (Friday) at 10;35 pm I told my wife Nancy that I felt strongly led to go over to our new church and pray. I specifically used the words "strongly led" because that was how I felt and I wanted her to understand why I was going so late on a Friday night - something I never do.
When I got to the church and let myself in (It had been locked up at about 9:30 PM) I noticed something shiny looking on the concrete floor at the far end of the lobby. As I got closer I could see it was water which was running out from the Early Childhood/Nursery wing of the building.
As I opened the double doors to the 50 foot hallway I found the brand new carpet was covered with 2 inches of water rushing toward me from the far end. I ran through the water and found the source in the last classroom on the left where the pressure tanks for our well system were standing. One of the PVC feeder pipes had burst and an open four inch pipe was gushing water against the tank and spraying up in the air.
With a quick prayer I bent over the gushing pipes and groped around for a shut off valve. Thankfully I found it and shut the water off. I ran back to the main lobby and called my buddy Jess who lives near the church and he came right over. We found two wet/dray vacs and started trying to rescue the classrooms from all the standing water
Then we realized that water had gotten across the lobby and under the sanctuary doors. Thankfully only a small area of carpet was wet and the water had not crested the sloped floor down to the stage area. We dove in with the wet vacs and kept any further damage to a minimum.
Jess called his wife Beth who called AAA Disaster Clean Up and they arrived about 1 AM as we were finishing up our vacuum brigade. By then our wives Nancy and Beth had come over to survey the damage and help clean up.
Looking back it is clear that the timing and leading of the entire event was an absolute miracle. I had no other reason to go to the church than that I felt led to go pray. As best we can estimate the water was running for a half hour to 45 minutes. If it had run all night our brand new -- never-been-used sanctuary would have sustained massive damage. Several rows of seats would have been ruined -- the sound system under the stage would have been destroyed and likely the walls would have needed to be torn out. The result would have been a 4-6 month delay with no place to meet since this was to be our first weekend in our new building.
God's timing is perfect. His leadings are exactly right. I know!
Thank you God for saving our church building from ruin as a sign to us of your amazing power, love and grace. And help us -- help me -- never to forget the power of this lesson!
