Today a Snake Came to Church

Today a snake came to church. Now, I know what some of you are thinking already. In a lot of churches some who attend might be considered snakes because of the lives that they live. But no; this one that I refer to was a real snake. Not large, probably not poisonous, but all the same a snake. And he crawled right in the front door while we were having services.

Now we have always said that our doors are open to everyone. And in this case it is a new church building in the remote town of Gorblee, Liberia where we had come to have a week long gospel meeting and outreach to this community. Being a new building, that is not even finished we do not even have windows and doors on the building yet, so the snake just crawled in the front entrance.

We were in the middle of our morning lessons and someone yelled out from the back in their “Bassa” language, “SNAKE”. Now I again know what some of you are thinking as you look around your church. But this is Africa, where they take such things as snakes very seriously.

The men near by jumped into action and quickly grabbed sticks and killed the snake and discarded of it. The amazing thing to me was that the preacher kept right on preaching through the whole ordeal without missing a beat or showing any concern for what was going on at the back of the little building.

Now I want to ask you a question; “If a snake came into your church, what would happen.” Would the services go right on as usual without any concern? Would the preacher or teacher keep going with their message with no concern? We would probably all evacuate the building, call animal control and threathen to never come back into the place until we were guaranteed that it was safe. But not here in Africa. Here in Africa it was just a snake that came to church. He was not welcome so he was dispatched. No big deal, just a snake. And the matter was forgotten almost as quick as it had happened.

But not for me! I will remember this day for a long time to come. The Day that a Snake came to Church. In my travels around the world, I have seen dogs, cats, rats, chickens and even a goat come into the church building while we were having services. But this was my first Snake. And I will remember it for some time to come and probably use it as a good illustration in the future.

So next time someone says there are snakes in the church, look around carefully.

There just might be!