BEFORE THE COCK CROWS

It's always good to walk away from church on Sunday knowing for certain that you have a specific work to do in your life. Well, church here is different in a variety of ways, but after a recent service, we needed to take action in an unpredictable way…

Pastor was preaching on Ecclesiastes 3 – a time for every purpose under heaven. Well, at the same time and in the same space as church, two of our hens were trying to lay their eggs. If you have never been around hens beginning the process of egg laying, let me tell you, they make quite a fuss. Ours are especially fond of laying around the cement bags stored in the assembly hall out of the weather. Our wonderful rooster was backing them up. Imagine, five minutes of preaching interrupted with 4 minutes of crowing and bok bok bok-ing. Of course, some kids chased them out of the assembly hall, sneaking back in to sit quietly. Then a few minutes went by and there they were again BOK BOK BOK COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO! This time I had to chase them out myself and tried to guard the entry. Very noisy. One snuck in behind me and while I was trying to shoo her out the other entrance, the others came in too! This time we chased them way around the other side of the building and into the bush. Whew! At least ten minutes went by before they were back!

And on and on… People (especially the children) were cracking up, but the sermon kept on. Finally Pastor John says "leave them be." I mentioned that they were new to laying and had to make a big deal of it! Everyone in the church understood, we ignored as best as we could, and the preaching went on!

Now it is a time to build… a henhouse!