When it snows in Fayetteville, even the worshippers take a vacation.
When yesterday's rain storm began to turn into big heavy rain drops, and then into snow, I never gave it a second thought. I figured we would get up in the morning, just like we did last Sunday morning, get ready for church and drive over to the Ft Bragg Military Ward for services.
From the time I woke up this morning, until we drove off for church, the local TV station was broadcasting messages across the bottom of the screen about church closings. Looking out the window and seeing the light patches of snow on the ground under the trees, I assured myself that they were all churches in the surrounding counties and not where we are staying. Since Mormons are a hardy bunch of people, I figured, as my coworker said, "The other churchs might cancel their meetings, but not us."
Approaching the church building, it looked ghostly empty. At first it looked like there weren't any cars in the parking lot, only the black bull in the field gnawing on some alfalfa looking on, then we circled around the other side of the building and saw a handful of cars parked there.
As we pulled up to a parking space to check things out, a brother came out to get something out of the family van. Upon questioning, he informed us that church was called off last night due to the weather, but that a few people had shown up so we were having a short Sacrament meeting with those who gathered.
It was a nice meeting. Opening prayer, a song, the Sacrament, some comments by the Bishop, and a closing prayer. Those of us in the congregation (less than 20) were those who were not on the Ward contact list. It was nice of the Bishop and his counselor to think of us and the fact that we would show up. Not that the weather would have stopped anyone from getting there.
The Bishop explained to us that about three years ago they had the last big snowstorm that, since they are not equipped for snowstorms, crippled transportation. So in anticipation of the same kind of storm they cancelled church today.
As you can see from the pictures, it doesn't take much snow in Fayetteville to keep worshippers away from church.
1 comment:
I've left a couple of comments...don't know why they're not showing up...
I laughed out loud when I saw how much snow "shut down" church on Sunday. That much snow "blew into the garage" yesterday morning when I let the dogs out. We have 8 inches of new snow...Weldon and Sheldon have been clearing the walks for me. Such great neighbors!
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