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As promised here. Taking care of my new nephew reminds me of a time 12 years ago.
I was a Freshman in a Christian College, I wanted to go into the ministry, but did not want to talk to people.
Yes, that is exactly as stupid as it sounds. (Might be why I enjoyed being a Chaplain Assistant in the Army. I got to help with the ministry, without having to talk to anyone other then my Chaplain. In fact, I was encouraged not to talk. Think Secret Service/Personal aid type work.)
I needed to make a critical decision, join the Army Reserves (for real life experiences, to this point in time, I was a self-sheltered and naive man) or just stay in school and become a missionary. So I skipped Tuesday/Thursday Chapel service to pray (normal school, called cutting class).
In my prayer and meditation, I became a little too relaxed and fell asleep in the basement. Twenty minutes later, something woke me up (^thank you Lord), I looked up and saw thick, black smoke rolling down the hallway. I laid back down, and... WAIT! THICK, BLACK SMOKE!!!
I dashed upstairs, yelled "Fire get out". They told me to get the Dorm mother (the wife of the "responsible adult" for the dorms), while they rushed downstairs with a fire extinguisher. So I dash back to the ground-floor and banged on their door. "Fire, we need to get out".
She then hands me her child and goes check all the floors for people. So I went outside with the baby, barely knowing how to hold the thing
(so squiggly they are). I did not know exactly what to do at this point, so I sat there playing with the baby.
So about 10 mins later Chapel lets out. The Dorm Dad (DD) look confused why I was outside with his child, the Dean of Admissions (DoA, the one in charge of keeping the student body in-line) happened to be next to him. I handed the baby back to DD, and explained what was going on. DoA was very upset, chewed me out for skipping Chapel. He calmed down when I told him I was praying (I did not tell him I was sleeping until much later. He laughed about it then
). He was just upset a room was on fire, so I understood. (some of the student body did not know Chapel was mandatory, was I the only one paying attention in orientation? One guy told me it was his first time going all year, 8 months. 
)
In the end, someone left a candle burning in a plastic cup.
Makes "I want to do ministry without interacting with people" look more intelligent now 
. They lost their TV, DVD cases (DVDs were in a CD book), and had to do 20 loads of laundry to get the smoke/fire extinguisher powder out of EVERYTHING they owned (DD did let them use their machines for free).
On the plus side, the women in school were all making googly eyes at me for the next week.
Especially since everyone saw me standing outside a "burning building" with a baby in my arms.
Bonus:
Someone out there just read this and is about to ask. "Gil, why did the Fire Alarm, that thing required by law, not wake you up?" Well now, that is an interesting question. I suppose that is also worthy of a post.
We turned the darn thing off.
Now that, makes the whole "ministry without interacting with people" look like Nobel Laureate material.
At the beginning of the year (8 months earlier), it kept giving false alarms and no one could sleep. Three, four, SIX times a night. We had class in the morning. We were desperate. So DD turned off the system.
But, DoA did not have the money in the budget to fix the System. Male dorms were getting refurbished next summer anyway, surly it can wait.
Guess what? Fire happened on a Thursday, Fire Alarm fixed before Saturday. They came in on Saturday to fix it too, I know those technicians are not cheap on Weekends. Just like magic (and by order of the Board of Directors and School President) the money needed was found. (we did have to suffer two nights of regular false alarms, but at least the Professors understood why all the men were tired)
I was a Freshman in a Christian College, I wanted to go into the ministry, but did not want to talk to people.
Yes, that is exactly as stupid as it sounds. (Might be why I enjoyed being a Chaplain Assistant in the Army. I got to help with the ministry, without having to talk to anyone other then my Chaplain. In fact, I was encouraged not to talk. Think Secret Service/Personal aid type work.) I needed to make a critical decision, join the Army Reserves (for real life experiences, to this point in time, I was a self-sheltered and naive man) or just stay in school and become a missionary. So I skipped Tuesday/Thursday Chapel service to pray (normal school, called cutting class).
In my prayer and meditation, I became a little too relaxed and fell asleep in the basement. Twenty minutes later, something woke me up (^thank you Lord), I looked up and saw thick, black smoke rolling down the hallway. I laid back down, and... WAIT! THICK, BLACK SMOKE!!!
I dashed upstairs, yelled "Fire get out". They told me to get the Dorm mother (the wife of the "responsible adult" for the dorms), while they rushed downstairs with a fire extinguisher. So I dash back to the ground-floor and banged on their door. "Fire, we need to get out".
She then hands me her child and goes check all the floors for people. So I went outside with the baby, barely knowing how to hold the thing
(so squiggly they are). I did not know exactly what to do at this point, so I sat there playing with the baby.So about 10 mins later Chapel lets out. The Dorm Dad (DD) look confused why I was outside with his child, the Dean of Admissions (DoA, the one in charge of keeping the student body in-line) happened to be next to him. I handed the baby back to DD, and explained what was going on. DoA was very upset, chewed me out for skipping Chapel. He calmed down when I told him I was praying (I did not tell him I was sleeping until much later. He laughed about it then
). He was just upset a room was on fire, so I understood. (some of the student body did not know Chapel was mandatory, was I the only one paying attention in orientation? One guy told me it was his first time going all year, 8 months. )In the end, someone left a candle burning in a plastic cup.
Makes "I want to do ministry without interacting with people" look more intelligent now . They lost their TV, DVD cases (DVDs were in a CD book), and had to do 20 loads of laundry to get the smoke/fire extinguisher powder out of EVERYTHING they owned (DD did let them use their machines for free). On the plus side, the women in school were all making googly eyes at me for the next week.
Especially since everyone saw me standing outside a "burning building" with a baby in my arms. Bonus:
Someone out there just read this and is about to ask. "Gil, why did the Fire Alarm, that thing required by law, not wake you up?" Well now, that is an interesting question. I suppose that is also worthy of a post.
We turned the darn thing off.
Now that, makes the whole "ministry without interacting with people" look like Nobel Laureate material.
At the beginning of the year (8 months earlier), it kept giving false alarms and no one could sleep. Three, four, SIX times a night. We had class in the morning. We were desperate. So DD turned off the system.
But, DoA did not have the money in the budget to fix the System. Male dorms were getting refurbished next summer anyway, surly it can wait.
Guess what? Fire happened on a Thursday, Fire Alarm fixed before Saturday. They came in on Saturday to fix it too, I know those technicians are not cheap on Weekends. Just like magic (and by order of the Board of Directors and School President) the money needed was found
. (we did have to suffer two nights of regular false alarms, but at least the Professors understood why all the men were tired)
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