It's raining ... inside the building

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy day. About 12:15 p.m., all heck broke loose. A water main to the sprinkler system split in half. Seriously, a four or five inch connecter joint thingy busted in two. It was pouring inside the building like I've never seen before. Coming out of the ceiling, down the walls, right through to the lower level. All while a funeral service was going on in the Sanctuary. It was an ugly site to behold.

Fortunately, over half of our MC gang were on hand. It's 9 p.m. and 14 of them are stilling sucking up water and shampooing the carpets. They are my heroes tonight. They will be here well after midnight and becasue of them we will have church tomorrow. Like pretty much every church in America right now, economically we can not go without a Sunday's offering. I know that sounds unspiritual. However, the keeper of the budget, thinks of such things.

Lessons learned today:
1. Instead of buying shop vacs, rent shampoo machines...they can suck up the nasty water first, then you can use them to clean the carpets afterwards.
2. Don't forget to rent the blowers to dry the carpet too. Fortuately we remembered.
3. In a staff meeting, devote an hour to walking the building and showing staff where the water main, gas main, circuit breakers and server are located. Even if they don't shut the water/gas/electricity off, they can show the fire department where it's located. We could have avoided a few hundred or thousand gallons pouring out if we knew where the water main was right away. We didn't even realize it, but the majority of the water was pouring down about ten feet away from the room where the serve resides. Thank you Jesus it didn't hit the $3,500 additional back up unit we just installed the day before.
4. Have a list somewhere of the telephone numbers for plumbers, electricians and whoever else might be helpful in an emergency situation. If your "go to" person can't be found, you should still be able to handle the crisis.
5. When the water sprinkler pipe breaks, there is a nasty odor that smells like gas ... in this case it wasn't, the water just stinks bad.
6. Boards warp really fast.
7. Know who you can count on in a crisis. The MC students rocked the house. I am like a proud mama right now.
8. We might of shot ourselves in the foot with the insurance company becasue we cleaned it up. Hopefully, the video and pictures we took will suffice. Regardless, had we not cleaned it up, we couldn't have had church. That wasn't an option.
9. You can't clean part of any carpet. It's an all or nothing deal. When the damaged area ended up being cleaner than the rest of the carpet, all had to be done.
10. How people respond in a crisis is a test of character. Our students passed with flying colors. This really is a special place. I am living amongst furture (and current) worldchangers. They give me hope for the church of today and tomorrow.