Day and Night

February 12th, 2011

It’s too Bad Blessings Can’t be Delivered Using Restraints and an IV

Today I had a couple of experiences. One was encouraging, and the other was discouraging.

I am too tired to write much about the first. Just that I found new fire and enthusiasm for prayer and supernatural warfare, and I unleashed it here and at my sister’s house.

The other thing happened at church. I was there for a prayer meeting and to help a friend with a baby shower.

While helping with the baby shower, I had to do some work in the kitchen, where I used to make pizza. Background: I was driven out out of the kitchen by mismanagement and antagonism from coworkers, as readers may recall. I made the church a lot of money with pizza, but when I tried to increase the professionalism and the spirituality in the kitchen (as instructed by church leaders), I provoked a backlash from people who preferred the status quo, and out I went.

Since I quit cooking, a strong Christian man has taken over the cafe, and the kitchen and the serving area are doing well. But he has limited authority, because of the twisted, amorphous chain of command at the church. He has to share a back room with a bunch of other ministries, and this is the area where I used to make pizza.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the back room today. The kitchen and serving area looked very good, so I had high hopes. But I was amazed at the chaos and filth.

Flour and sugar I left at the church when I quit were still on the counters, in plain paper bags. Near the bags, I saw a stack of unopened boxes containing glue traps for mice. I opened a couple of drawers. For some reason, the church keeps hundreds of sets of unused stainless flatware, along with unused china, and all this stuff is in cabinets and drawers. It should have been disposed of years ago.

The drawers contained so much mouse and roach poop, I was amazed. But it made sense, given the presence of the unused flour and sugar. Why they thought glue traps were the answer is a mystery, given that they put the traps next to the food supply the vermin were using, leaving the food in place.

The church serves free hot dogs and popcorn on Saturday afternoons. That’s great. But they store the cooking and service equipment in the back room, out in the open. Where the mice and roaches play. I was horrified. This is not a trivial health hazard. It’s extremely serious. Rodent feces kill people in a number of ways.

When I worked in the kitchen, I donated some Japanese cutlery I didn’t use. I didn’t like it much, but it’s very expensive, and most chefs love it. I also donated a diamond hone. I checked today, and all of this stuff was gone. Was it stolen or just put away for safety? I don’t know, but I noticed they left the cheap Chinese cleaver I donated, so whoever moved this stuff knew which pieces were valuable.

The drawer where I left the cutlery was full of poop. I had sterilized it, but the mice had returned.

The obvious conclusion is that the place is still a mess, and I would be losing my mind if I had to work there. So I had to thank my superior in the Armorbearer organization, who strongly advised me to get out of the cafe.

It’s so hard to bless people. They treat good things like trash. They show no gratitude for the good things you do. They fight improvement as though it were a fatal disease. This must be how God feels every day. And it reaffirms my conservatism. Liberals give people what they want, regardless of what they deserve, and it destroys them. Conservatives know that the best way to keep a person poor is to give him money.

I guess I better alert the pastor before someone dies.

17 Responses to “Day and Night”

  1. Ruth H Says:

    That’s just heartbreaking. It’s hard to realize some people are just using the church for whatever reason. But you never know, some good will come of it, someone will actually see the light, your work is never really in vain.

  2. Karen V. Says:

    Sadly, this is similar to my church. Dinner is served every Wednesday and I refuse to eat there. It’s awkward when people ask me why I don’t come on Wednesday nights. I don’t understand why it’s not clean. At my former church, several members gathered twice a year, emptied everything out of the kitchen and pantry, scrubbed down the walls, floors, equipment and everything else and took inventory. It doesn’t take that long when 20 or more people pitch in.

  3. pbird Says:

    People do fight improvement like its a fatal disease! Funny but awful.

  4. Steve B Says:

    Part of the problem is that it’s always “someone else’s job.”

    I remember one when I was involved in web ministry at a church, supposedly managing a “team” to develop the web presence. It was all great fun, but nothing ever got done. So finally I asked for a commitment of two hours a week from each of the team members, to actually treat it like a ministry. You’d think I stole their birthday. One guy actually said, “but I thought this was volunteer.”

    Volunteers who don’t actually work are called “freeloaders.”

    They all wanted to help out and feel good about supporting the church, until I actually wanted a commitment of their time and energy, and suddenly my six man team became…me.

    It’s disheartening how resistant many of those in the Church are to just basic accountability.

    There’s also those who think that since most of the stuff in the church kitchen was donated in the first place, then it’s not really stealing if they re-route the donation to themselves. Sad.

    That rat poop thing has got to be stopped. Being a 401-C3 doesn’t mean your exempt from basic food handling laws.

  5. Virgil Says:

    Regarding the Japanese Knives, it really is frightening how much stuff is “borrowed” from places like churches and other non-profits by the people that volunteer to work there part time or even just once.
    .
    Anonymity apparently yields careless superficial larceny among people that think they are “holier than thou…”
    .
    I lost a hammer (one I’d had since I was a kid) which I loaned out at a Habitat for Humaity build to some idiot bank employee that showed up on a Saturday to build a house and admitted that he didn’t even own a hammer.
    .
    He just took it home with him he apparently liked it so much.
    .
    When I volunteered building sets for Plays produced by the local non-profit community theater down on the Georgia Coast I found that the board members and other “so called” Angels and regular volunteers that had a key to the building treated the Theater supply room like Home Depot or Ace Hardware and regularly showed up and disappeared with materials and supplies and tools.
    .
    Notably once I bought some nice Purdy Paint Brushes using my own money to paint a set I was building and never got to use them because they mysteriously disappeared over the weekend while I was out of town.
    .
    Unfortunately no good deed goes unpunished most of the time, and you continue to confirm that adage for me in a positive manner.
    .
    Keep on keeping on, just carefully pick your battles and wars…

  6. Steve H. Says:

    I was talking to a young volunteer I warned about the poop, and I said the kitchen people had told me they were keeping actively used items away from the poop, and he said, “Why don’t they just CLEAN the kitchen?”
    .
    And I realized I was acting like an enabler.
    .
    I feel like calling the health department and asking how far we’re supposed to keep the food and utensils from the giant deposits of urine and feces. “No, seriously, what’s the standard? Five feet? What?”

  7. Steve B Says:

    I’ve seen two news reports recently of old-school rat-borne illnesses making a comeback in the US. Nothing to mess around with.

    I’d say you definitely need to go to the leadership. They either need to get it fixed (and keep it fixed), or stop serving food.

  8. lauraw Says:

    I don’t know all the background on this saga, but let me guess: women.

    There are some women that are very good at taking direction from others and who feel that good instruction (and even well-meant criticism) is kindness.

    I’d hazard that these types are underrepresented in volunteer work as a result of more than one cause.

  9. Ritchie Says:

    The situation is much the same in high-tech. Why install a switch when you can just move an alligator clip back and forth? Really. I mean, not that there’s a lot of mousiepoop on the lasers, which is a relief, but still. AAGH.

  10. greg zywicki Says:

    “Steve B Says:
    February 14th, 2011 at 3:33 am
    ..
    Part of the problem is that it’s always ‘someone else’s job.'”
    ..
    Including Steve H, Karen V, and Young Volunteer. Here’s me being preachy. The converse of the law of the commons is, if no-one’s responsible, everyone’s responsible. So anyone that observes the problem and doesn’t act is part of the problem.
    ..
    Now, one may decide that the price for acting isn’t worth acting (eg pissing large numbers of people off, starting fights, blowing all protocol to hell, etc., maybe you’re just to damn busy – I seem to recall that in Steve’s case at least one of these applies) but just clucking about it, well…

  11. Steve H. Says:

    Does that really make sense to you, Greg? Our pastor is a humble guy, and he would be willing to clean the toilets if we let him, instead of “clucking” about it. Is that the highest and best use of his ability? The whole reason my team exists is to prevent busy leaders from doing “someone else’s job.” It’s the reason the Disciples chose leaders to help them take care of their flock, instead of waiting tables. It’s the reason Jethro told Moses to appoint subordinates and delegate responsibility. We are NOT responsible for every job that needs doing.
    .
    If you really think every Christian is obligated to do every job that needs doing, fly down from Detroit and clean my church’s kitchen. Don’t just cluck.

  12. greg zywicki Says:

    It is a good time to visit Florida. But I sense a bit of argumentum ad absurdum, or however you spell it, and I have my hands full here at the moment.
    .
    Everyone has their job, and we’re all different parts of the body, but just because you’re not a nose doesn’t mean you don’t smell. And we’d like to choose who gets to be what part, but you don’t get to pick the nose. The jokes are out of my system, I promise….My point is, in many churches (mine included) you have folks who are long on complaints and short on action. If your hands are full and you say, “Someone should sweep the floor,” well then clearly you can’t do it yourself. If you’re standing there doing nothing (not _you_, because you’re busy with being an armorbearer) then pick up a damn broom. Sure it gets old being _the One_ who’s always doing X because no one else can be bothered to help, but so what? Isn’t that what sacrifice is about? There are many gifts of the spirit; cleaning up rat poop just has to be done.

    So no, your pastor might not be the best person to clean the toilet. Who’s the worst person to clean up the rat poop? The person doing it now – Nobody. You must have someone better than Nobody in the church. And right now, Nobody is the only person looking for that right person. All I know is Somebody has already discerned a need (and it didn’t even take a spiritual visitation) in the body of Christ. I’ll do what I can do from here – pray that God will send a spirit of service in your church, and that He will guide Somebody (you) and Anybody Else in how to further resolve the problem. Maybe starting with that amorphous chain of “command.”

  13. Steve H. Says:

    Maybe I misunderstood you, and I’m sorry if that is true. I thought you were suggesting I should clean the store room myself. I have duties of my own. Aside from that, I tried to help with cleanup efforts in the past, and I was obstructed at every turn. If I tried to go in there today and clean it out, they would make me leave.
    .
    Sooner or later, the people who are responsible for this mess are going to have to stand up and do something for themselves.

  14. greg zywicki Says:

    “If I tried to go in there today and clean it out, they would make me leave.”
    .
    That’s one tough church. Most churches, they’d just snipe behind your back and make oblique references during council meetings. Not that that’s fun either.
    .
    “Sooner or later, the people who are responsible for this mess are going to have to stand up and do something for themselves.”
    .
    No time like the present. Rat Poop is a pretty good trump card.

  15. greg zywicki Says:

    Thank you and bless you for your patience. Good luck.

  16. roddy boyd Says:

    How odd that a place you seem to find fulfilling has aspects that are so utterly chaotic and spiritually bankrupt. You say that your pastor is a good man, yet the people he has appointed are willing to endanger others to have a fiefdom.

    I have no answers but leaving this unremarked upon seems unwise. If Elders or deacons are there, it is their legal job to be aware of this. I am not seeking to lecture you, but that kitchen is well-trafficked and a social hub of your church. Someone needs to know about it.

    Beyond that, glad youve got a home.

  17. Steve H. Says:

    Roddy, the church is very big, and they try to do a great deal, so things get overlooked. Personally, I think they should try to do a few things well instead of doing everything badly, but I don’t know what God whispers in the pastor’s ear. Maybe this is how things are supposed to be.