What They Dont' Tell You In Seminary

I told someone today, "This is one of those things they don't teach you in seminary!" Let me tell you why.

The little church that I am the interim pastor for (Foothills Church of God) had quite a traumatic day today. We have a Preschool at the Church. This morning, at around 6:20am one of the teachers arrived to open the Preschool. After pulling up into the parking lot, she was accosted by 4 men. They carjacked her SUV and drove to a bank ATM machine where they forced her to remove funds from her bank account. Meanwhile, some of the parents a few of the other teachers started arriving around 7am. Finding the church still locked (highly unusual), they got out and looked around the parking lot. They found a purse and some of the contents of it strewn around the parking lot. One of the teachers called the home of the lady who was supposed to have opened earlier in the morning. Quickly the situation escalated into a very nervous and worrisome event. The mother of the woman who was missing came flying down to the church. She was nearly hysterical. Children and staff were arriving. A call was placed to 911 and another call came to me. All I got out of the call was, "We need you pastor, come quick."
By the time I arrived, the police were there and the staff was crying and peeking out from doors and windows. The parents and staff that had discovered the purse and things were being interviewed by the initial officer. What do you do?
Well, all I know is that they don't teach you this stuff in seminary! I took several steps to try and deal with the immediate situation. I got the Preschool director to go in and get her staff to calm down and concentrate on the children. Nothing was going to be accomplished by having the children in a panic. I immediately went over to the husband and father of the victim to console them. I then talked with the officer to see if we needed to close the Preschool. He suggested we wait for the arrival of a detective who would be in charge of the case. He arrived momentarily and we discussed our options. We closed the Preschool and some parents and the director began calling parents to tell them that we would be closed for the day and reopen Monday. Meanwhile, the officers began to arrive in droves. We closed the parking lot and the police put up crime scene tape. For the next hour I walked up and down the street and talked to parents who were arriving to bring their children to daycare. I assured them that things were going to be OK and that the incident had occurred before any of the children had arrived.
After an hour of anxious waiting, a phone call came and all kinds of activity started up. A few minutes later, one of the officers told me that they had found the woman in a remote part of a place called Chino Hills and that her abductors had kicked her out of the car (unharmed) and left her in such a wooded area that the police were having to send a helicopter up on the mountain to retrieve her. The good news was that she was all right.
We told the staff and everyone was relieved. By then, some of the parents began arriving to pick up their kids. I continued to go up and down the street assuring everyone that everything was indeed OK. Later, I gathered the staff together and told them what a good job they had done that day. By then, the Administrator had arrived (she was taking care of her grandkids quite a distance away and then got caught in traffic trying to get to the church) and we talked with the staff about how to handle things on Monday. Some of the staff were still arriving and were shocked by the news. I spent the next hour in pastoral care, assuring everyone that this was a crime of opportunity and unlikely to be repeated by either the criminals or others. By the time noon had arrived, the police CSI had come and gone and all the children were picked up. The staff left and I headed out for lunch, grateful for all that I have learned in seminary and over the 3+ decades of pastoring - none of which prepared me for today ... and yet, with the presence of the Holy Spirit, everything I had learned in seminary and in pastoring helped me get through the morning. I ate lunch, came back to the apartment, and took a nap. Not a bad day. Thank God.