Not Your Normal Day at Church

Last night we had a dinner with two couples from church, which we really enjoyed. One of the couples has a large and extended family that is spread out all over California and beyond. During the course of the evening, they were telling us about visiting one of their children at their home church down in Thousand Oaks, California.

As it turns out, Jason and I have been to this church. Last year after the Pepperdine Lectures were over, we went to visit with some old ACU friends there that now live in Malibu. It was a nice church and all, but the most memorable part of that visit was in the pre-service Power Point announcements. I believe it said something like this: Remember: This is rattlesnake season. Please check the playground for snakes before your children play there. I clearly remember thinking, "What?" I am from Texas after all, but I had never seen such a "check the playground for snakes" announcement, and especially not so casually on the Power Point slides.

It turns out that yes, it was rattlesnake season, and yes, the week before they had found (and killed) one on the children's playground. It seems that because the church is situated beside a large bank of wild area, snakes do tend to come down to the church area to visit.

Well, we learned last night that more than snakes linger around that church. Apparently the weekend that our friends visited, another form of wildlife showed up for display at the first service. In fact, the visiting preacher was largely upstaged by the sight of a coyote have breakfast...consisting of a neighborhood cat. Can you imagine the turmoil that must have caused? People on the edge of losing their morning donuts. Children crying, horrified in the pews. Church-goers who live in the neighborhood trying to see if the kitty/victim looks like Tiger back home. Yuck.

I suppose we can call that area of California "Wild Wonderful California". Whew. A good place to be close to wildlife, but a bad place to send the kids or to play, or have large windows in the auditorium.