On Friday we (Janet and myself) had the pleasure of attending the 40th birthday party for Barry Eason, a friend of ours from church. Originally, Janet and I agreed that we would only make a brief appearance and then hit the road for a nice night at the house with our nephew Aiden. But as the party began and everyone got into the swing of it, we found the company, as we often do, quite pleasurable and made the decision to stay. Man was I glad that we did...
Most times a party ends up being a nice social gathering where you eat, hang out and chit chat a little, then hit the road and grab some shut eye. This one turned out just the opposite. You see the fun part was at the end. An ending I doubt has ever happened at First Church before. The gym which we were using also doubles as our sanctuary. Part of the decorations for the party were helium filled black balloons. An appropriate decor for someone turning the Big 4-0. The great thing about this situation, being in a gym with helium filled balloons, is that it created the perfect setting for the worst thing to happen.
That occurrence, although really small, came about as true as it could. You see out of the 12 or so black balloons filled with helium, about six of them somehow made there way to the ceiling. A ceiling that is not designed to allow easy recovery of a helium filled balloon. And to make things worst, there was a funeral scheduled in the gym at 10:00am the next morning.
Now while black balloons are appropriate for a "over the hill" party, they are by no means appropriate for a funeral. Here sat the dilemma, with no easy solution. We thought of multiple ways to attempt to retrieve the lost balloons, each one getting crazier and crazier. We thought about stacking tables on top of each other and one person would stand on one side while another person climbed up on the opposite side therefore ensuring some chance of equal weight distribution. To say the least, that was a crazy idea. Then we thought about shooting a tooth pick through a straw in an attempt to blow up the balloons. Well that was a good idea, but one of no merit as we just didn't have enough air or weight to get the toothpick even high enough to touch the balloons, much less pop them.
So what do we do? Well, we had one idea that had been discussed several times, but to date, no one had taken action on. But with ideas running short and time getting late, the decision was made to bring in the only item we knew would bring those babies tumbling to the ground with no air left in there miserable bellies. Yep, you probably guessed it by now... a Beebe gun.
The problem, you see, is that we were in the building that was not only our gym, but it doubled as the sanctuary and on Sunday would be filled with 250+ church goers. So the question, was it appropriate to shoot a gun in the church? What if we shot out a light by accident? How could we ensure we didn't end up with ten Beebe's on the floor and members falling because they stepped on one? All were legitimate questions that required our utmost attention, of which we committed about twenty eight seconds too before making the decision that it just had to be done. Well, that was easy.
Oh ney, ney my friend. Now we had to find someone who had a Beebe gun and would be willing to shoot these flying beasts out of the gym sky, bringing them safely to the ground, with minimum Beebe's falling to the floor with them. So we asked around and yes, we found our hero... or at least my hero. Mark "the Man" Carter.
Mark not only had a Beebe gun, but he was willing to shoot those bad boys right out of the sky. After about a 10 minute absence, Mark appeared with the tool of destruction. A pump Beebe gun...
I was lucky enough to actually video tape the entire event. Please excuse the quality, but here it is, the link to the video itself of my Hero, Mark Carter in action.
Most times a party ends up being a nice social gathering where you eat, hang out and chit chat a little, then hit the road and grab some shut eye. This one turned out just the opposite. You see the fun part was at the end. An ending I doubt has ever happened at First Church before. The gym which we were using also doubles as our sanctuary. Part of the decorations for the party were helium filled black balloons. An appropriate decor for someone turning the Big 4-0. The great thing about this situation, being in a gym with helium filled balloons, is that it created the perfect setting for the worst thing to happen.
That occurrence, although really small, came about as true as it could. You see out of the 12 or so black balloons filled with helium, about six of them somehow made there way to the ceiling. A ceiling that is not designed to allow easy recovery of a helium filled balloon. And to make things worst, there was a funeral scheduled in the gym at 10:00am the next morning.
Now while black balloons are appropriate for a "over the hill" party, they are by no means appropriate for a funeral. Here sat the dilemma, with no easy solution. We thought of multiple ways to attempt to retrieve the lost balloons, each one getting crazier and crazier. We thought about stacking tables on top of each other and one person would stand on one side while another person climbed up on the opposite side therefore ensuring some chance of equal weight distribution. To say the least, that was a crazy idea. Then we thought about shooting a tooth pick through a straw in an attempt to blow up the balloons. Well that was a good idea, but one of no merit as we just didn't have enough air or weight to get the toothpick even high enough to touch the balloons, much less pop them.
So what do we do? Well, we had one idea that had been discussed several times, but to date, no one had taken action on. But with ideas running short and time getting late, the decision was made to bring in the only item we knew would bring those babies tumbling to the ground with no air left in there miserable bellies. Yep, you probably guessed it by now... a Beebe gun.
The problem, you see, is that we were in the building that was not only our gym, but it doubled as the sanctuary and on Sunday would be filled with 250+ church goers. So the question, was it appropriate to shoot a gun in the church? What if we shot out a light by accident? How could we ensure we didn't end up with ten Beebe's on the floor and members falling because they stepped on one? All were legitimate questions that required our utmost attention, of which we committed about twenty eight seconds too before making the decision that it just had to be done. Well, that was easy.
Oh ney, ney my friend. Now we had to find someone who had a Beebe gun and would be willing to shoot these flying beasts out of the gym sky, bringing them safely to the ground, with minimum Beebe's falling to the floor with them. So we asked around and yes, we found our hero... or at least my hero. Mark "the Man" Carter.
Mark not only had a Beebe gun, but he was willing to shoot those bad boys right out of the sky. After about a 10 minute absence, Mark appeared with the tool of destruction. A pump Beebe gun...
I was lucky enough to actually video tape the entire event. Please excuse the quality, but here it is, the link to the video itself of my Hero, Mark Carter in action.
Well Mark was exactly as he promised, successful, unlike this author. I hope you enjoyed this little part of my life. If you ever need a real kick or a great sermon, come see us at First Church of the Nazarene in Conway.
Until tomorrow,
Chip
Until tomorrow,
Chip
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Until next time,
Chip