Today I’m thinking about a brief scene from the 2001 medieval adventure-comedy, A Knight’s Tale, in which a destitute Geoffrey Chaucer, played by actor Paul Bettany, is walking, nude, down a country road, having lost all his clothes in a gambling wager. He is met on the road by three serfs who ask him what in the world he is doing, walking jaybird-naked through the countryside. Chaucer’s reply: “I am trudging. You know, ‘To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing-yet-determined walk of [one] who has nothing…except the impulse to simply soldier on.’”
I won’t lie: We’ve been doing our fair share of trudging lately at First Baptist through what has felt like an endless stream of facilities fiascos. I present here the “highlights” reel from the past two months:
November 25 (3 days before Thanksgiving): a pipe burst in the back corner of the Dawson Room, flooding the gymnasium below. Professional cleaning costs: $2,150
December 3: a pipe burst in the floor of the 3rd floor of the Education/Office building sending hot water cascading into the O Street Lobby and requiring us to close the Child Development Center for 3 days. Cleaning costs: $2,500. This incident led us to turn off all heat in the Ed/Office building indefinitely. All offices and most meeting rooms are now being warmed by portable heaters.
Sunday, December 7: temperature in worship was 90°.
December 21: a valve-related issue caused partial flooding in Fellowship Hall.
Christmas Eve: five hours before our community was to arrive for worship, a pipe failure caused flooding in our narthex. Our office staff rallied with mops and towels.
Sunday, December 29: temperature in worship was 57°.
January 10, 2020: our gym (in which CDC children play daily) was flooded with sewage when a sewer tank failed. Clean-up, air scrubbing and sanitizing costs: $3,750.
January 19: a valve-related issue led to the flooding of the entire Fellowship Hall in ½ inch of water (thankfully clean water, not sewage). Estimated cost: $4,000.
January 26-27: another valve-related issue led to the flooding of the entire Fellowship Hall—again. Clean-up is still underway.
I'm sure many of our folk are unaware of the sheer volume of building-related issues FBC faces on a regular basis. Even so, the above list of facilities rebellions prompts me to say this:
a) I thank God that the work of our Facilities Improvement Team is well down the road! FBC Moderator Rod Coates and Executive Pastor Charlie Fuller initiated the work of our FIT in February of 2018. You can hear more about the insightful, forward-thinking work this team doing at the congregational meeting after the potluck this Sunday.
b) Please pray for dear Sarah Hodges-Austin, our Interim Executive Administrator, who knows how to absorb chaos and give back calm as well as anyone I know.
c) While our buildings are creating enormous, unwelcome sideways energy these days at FBC, especially for the FBC and CDC staff who work here every day, God continues to show up in beautiful ways in our faith community. We continue to worship, welcome newcomers into community, serve, give and grow together. There is plenty to celebrate. (One meaningful example: a husband and wife from Australia received distressing news from home while on vacation in DC. They looked church online in which to pray and wound up in our sanctuary on a recent Sunday afternoon, just as dear Charles Pugh was playing beautiful music on our organ. They wept and prayed and later shared with us that God met them here in a powerful, much-needed way.)
So, we press on, FBC family, in the midst of floods, ancient pipes, sewage spills and wildly-fluctuating sanctuary temperatures. In the parlance of St. Paul, “We trudge not as those who have no hope!”
Peace and grace,
