I'd Been Warned - I Shoulda Known Better

I'll explain the title of this post, which refers to an incident that occurred at 11:30 PM, and work backwards form there through my day (Friday) I hope you'll forgive the flippancy of my Youtube link. It's just the way my brain works.

I booked my hotel room for Friday night at a hotel in Innisfail. However, my daughter said she had booked a stay at that same motel and left for another because her non-smoking room smelled of smoke. I thought, "Well that was then - this is now. Surely It wouldn't be a common occurrence." So I booked in, went to my room and everything seemed fine. That is until about 11:00 when I heard the drip, drip of water. I ignored it for a while, but then wondered if I had left a tap dripping in the bathroom, so I got up to check. There was water all over the floor, dripping from the ceiling.

I called the front desk and explained the problem. The clerk said he would be there in 5 minutes. I called again after 6, saying also that he should find me another room, and he came right to the room, finally realizing the problem. (It turns out that the toilet in the room above was cracked and leaking.) So he let me in to the room next door. Guess what it smelled like: yes, smoke. I told the desk clerk, he came into the room, took a cursory sniff and said he didn't notice it. But it was definitely there. Looking back, when I originally entered my first room I noticed the (not unpleasant) smell of ozone. An ozone generator is what they use to get rid of smoke odor. As I booked out the following morning I mentioned the smoke smell and the morning desk clerk shouted into the back office, "We need the machine in room 119." It seems it is not an uncommon problem for them.

I'd been warned - I shoulda known better

So... enough on that problem. My afternoon meeting in Red Deer was with Living Stones Church. Living Stones has run Alpha's Youth Film Series effectively in the past, but now their Senior Pastor is the driving force behind their running the new Alpha Film Series for the entire congregation. He was not able to be there, but I had a very good meeting with Associate Pastor Darren Aucoin. Living Stones began years ago with a small group of 6 people. They now have about 800 attending their Sunday Services. Their current location was once a drive-in movie theatre, and the old projection/concession building still stands as their youth centre.

Prior to Red Deer I had two meetings in Calgary. My late morning meeting (I'm working backwards, remember) was with Rob Martin of Eastside City Church. I was encouraged to hear that they have made Alpha an integral part of their church's small group strategy, where they intend to run Alpha sequentially and guests graduating from an Alpha course are then rolled over, if you like, to a new small group.

My first morning meeting in Calgary was with Southview Church where I had another great conversation and heard some wonderful Alpha stories. Just before we sat down, I was given a tour of their new facility. I smiled when my guide showed me their worship space (half of which was divided off and set up for their Alpha. My own church meets in a high school atrium, and we have to set up and take down about 110 chairs every week. Because Southview's worship space is, "multi-use," they set up and take down 1000 chairs every week. I don't think our people should feel so bad.

And that's as far back in the morning I'll go as I'm not sure you don't want to know what I had for breakfast.

Blessings,

John