Neighbors and Grace

The middle of the night is often when we confront the demons and stresses that haunt us. It can also be the place where we experience Grace. Last night at 3:15 am Lisa and I were awakened by a loud rap on our front door and a shout of "Morganton Police". We scrambled to get our clothes on to discover that someone had broken into the shop. The good news was the police had nabbed him. We raced to the scene of the crime (boy, does that sound weird) to identify the things he had stolen: an old dorm-sized refrigerator and our weed eater. In the process of breaking in, he physically broke the door frame. He even backed his rented jeep into the door in order to load the goods.  Not the ideal way to be awakened I can assure you.

the grace of this event came from our neighbors, a young couple that had moved in across the street.  We had intended to meet them at some point but didn't think 4 am was an ideal time to do it. They were the ones who called the police. Thankfully, he works second shift and had recently arrived home so they were sitting on their front porch when the bum showed up.  Josh even drove his truck to follow him in case he got away.

One of my favorite sayings in my job has been "your tax dollars at work". As a state employee, I like to make sure that folks realize that when I am doing my job, they are seeing their taxes working for them. We could certainly say that we saw our taxes at work through the Morganton Public Safety officers who assisted with the arrest.  They even showed extreme professionalism and care in handling the individual apprehended for the crime.

Later that morning, around 7:00 am (now thats sick) we meet our contractor at the job site. He changed out our door for us and got back to some of the more exciting things like  sheeting the house.

It won't be long and it really will look like a house once the rafters go up. All in all, a pretty exciting day.  God's grace was evident in the people we met and in the safety of all involved. And we didn't lose any stuff, just a door frame, cause I think I can still use that door..........