Today was our first day in our new church building. We finally signed the lease agreement three weeks after we first said we wanted to rent the building. That was taken care of Friday night and Saturday was spent all day in cleaning and preparing for today.
After the morning services we were eating lunch. A man walked in off the street right into the building to ask what we were doing. Well, obviously we were eating. This building is a colonial style house but has been an auto parts store for many years. So it would not be unusual for the neighbors to still see this as a public business. And, of course, we would welcome anyone into our church. So it was all fine up to that point.
I told the man that we had started a church for the Deaf and that we had services there on Sundays. He was welcome to join us. He declined saying that he goes to mass and did not want to come to our church. Then he proceeded to ask me to give him some Coke. We had a 2-liter bottle of Coke sitting on the table. And we were all sharing it, so it would not have been a big deal to give the man a Coke. But, what if someone walked into your house (he did not know until after he was in the building that it was not our house but a church) and demanded a Coke. Would you give him some?
I then asked him if he would come back and visit with us. He said, “Yes, I will come by every week to see you. Give me some Coke.” Well, if he is going to come back every week and ask me to give him some Coke, then I think I will pass on the opportunity. He then proceeded to ask one of the young men at the church to give him some Coke. I just had to laugh. Remember this is a Deaf church. He was properly ignored by the Deaf teen who was playing a game. He was not being rude, he just did not hear the fellow.