Mysteries

There is no lesson here or anything else, just my ramblings spurred on by the events of the day.

In the past we have had a number of things missing at church. Sometimes they are bizarre, like the missing port a potty, but usually they are smaller items. An occasional Bible will go for a walk and we hope the person who has it is reading it. Odds and ends like a tablecloth, can opener or other kitchen item will vanish. We had a number of coffee mugs in the cabinet, probably a couple of dozen, and they all vanished except for one. Dishes and pans have been known to go for a walk. Those are probably in the homes of absent minded people who intend to bring them back and keep forgetting.

We had a large box of items being collected for Operation Christmas Child stored in an out of the way place. Almost all of the bags of candy and gum vanished out of it. So did a few toys and other items. The most bizarre thing to vanish out of that box was close to a thousand bandaids! I guess somebody ran out of scotch tape! We had love loaves for a mission project and they vanished. All the scissors in one of the kids classrooms disappeared along with the markers. Nothing of much value normally vanishes though. It's just bizarre.

Today we have the mystery of the missing loaves of banana bread. They were to be for a meeting tonight. I saw them on the counter in a bag, out of the way, on Sunday late but by early this afternoon, they were gone. Only a few people were in the building and we checked with most of them to see if they knew where the bread went. Nobody had any idea. I guess it could have been a very big mouse because only people with keys can get into the building on Mondays.

We have groups that use the building that are not church members but the items go for a walk at times when the groups are not there. It has to be a big church mouse.

For a while we had lots of cookies missing over a period of time. We have a shelf of food for those who need help and come by the church. One sweet lady had donated 3 or more packages of cookies as a treat for those who were having difficulties, in addition to the other food. One by one, the packages disappeared, with only one of them going to a family who requested help. Another sweet lady replaced 2 or 3 bags of cookies. Again they vanished in a few days and they did not go to people asking for help as far as I could find out. I replaced cookies several times and they would disappear within a day or two and the other food would still be there. After a while, I quit replacing them. Our mystery church mouse has a sweet tooth. The mouse prefers cookies and goodies to other foods. And it doesn't like the food on the counter that is there for everyone. It's particular.

The quilters appear to have trained the mouse not to take their stuff. Smart ladies. They have very clear signs on their snacks in the freezer that say something like, if you take this God might get you and you'll deserve it. (I made that up but they do have signs)

It doesn't seem to matter if I put my name on something in the refrigerator. If the mouse likes it, it's history. (The mouse likes fruit too) If the mouse doesn't like it, things have been known to sit in the refrigerator until they spoil and try to escape on their own.

The whole thing gets somewhat amusing. The port a potty was the funniest because it is big and would be obvious going out the door. We solved that mystery. It turned up in another state.

Some day I might get a real cheap surveillance camera and put it up just for fun. It might be interesting to see where all this stuff really goes.

Sometimes I suspect there are members who see something that just doesn't look very good any more to them and they get rid of it. That could be a good thing if they replace it with something new and better. That's what happened with an old Christmas tree. It was in bad shape so the people who threw it out got a new and beautiful one for everyone to enjoy.

For now, I'm keeping my eyes open for a big church mouse with a sweet tooth that caused a minor crisis in the church today.