How the Sundays Go

Yesterday was Sunday and we went to church at IGo. I was excited when I realized that Dru wasn't leading worship and he wasn't going to need to translate.

Halfway through the service a Thai man walked in and sat at the end of our row. He was beside Titus and insisted on seeing Titus's notes. Which struck me as a bit odd. A bit later another man came up the steps. The first man stood up and suddenly it was very evident that he was angry and the second man didn't seem so happy himself. They were getting louder and louder. Rick lost his audience. I watched the faces of the other men who knew Thai. Scott was on the other side of the chapel, very tuned in, but kind of far away. Then Dru got up. He got the two of them into the rec room and they talked loudly out there for some time. Somewhere in there I leaned over and asked Titus if the guy beside him was drunk. "Probably."

The first man, who was indeed drunk, came back in and sat down. But by now he wasn't quite as quiet. Dru was out talking to the second guy. Then the drunk man went back out and I heard him say something to the effect, "You dead would be better," and put his hands together and made a chopping motion at the other man's neck. I was terrified, not sure what was going on. Then the second guy left, yelling at the drunk man as he went down the steps. Dru came back in and sat down for a bit. This is when he filled me in that the first guy was drunk and the second man was his friend. The poor guy was beside himself to get his drunk friend out of the church service.

Somewhere in there Rick stopped his sermon to pray over the situation--seeing as it was very difficult for anyone to focus anyway. I suspect that even Rick was struggling to keep his thoughts.

Then the man came back and between Dru and him they got the drunk guy downstairs. And from up in the chapel we could still hear the loud talking, bordering on yelling--indeed, it was yelling at points. I went into Lee's office with Renita and watched the goings on downstairs through the window. Finally, they got the poor, befuddled, angry man out. But by this time, church was withing about five minutes of closing.

It's a funny feeling, this pride I have in my man for his talents and abilities, specifically in speaking in Thai, along side of the frustration I have that he's always using these abilities. On Sunday mornings, that is. I'm coming to grips with the fact that the Sundays that Dru can sit quietly with his arm around me in church, are going to be scarce and not to be counted on. If he's not preaching himself, or translating for someone else, he may just be trying to keep someone from getting into a fist fight right in the back row of the chapel.