After
church my friend Carolyn asked if I had heard about all the commotion during
church. Then she filled me in. Evidently Luke was a missing child. For church
today I wanted Luke to sit in with us during baptism because he had not seen one
before. My plan was to have him go to childcare after the baptism’s were over.
Jayden had him checked in on the computer system with a nametag ready. After
baptism Luke really didn’t want to go to childcare so I let him stay with us.
Since he never went to the classroom, I did not think anything of him
still being checked in. After the kids have worship time they go back to the
classroom and with Luke's name on the list, they panicked that he was not there.
In a church like Cornerstone, with hundred’s of children, they take security
very serious. In no time, the church was on lock down and security men were
searching the church for a little blonde 6 year old boy. Several of the staff
and searching parents knew us well enough to go into the service and look for
us. This is how the mission was called off. I knew nothing about any of it
until Carolyn told me. Yes, I felt embarrassed and bad that I caused such
trouble. Mark N. a good friend of ours was one of the security. They have
headphones and walkie talkies among other things. He said it was a good
practice drill for the team. It makes me feel my kids are safe and secure
there, but I still felt bad for the trouble.
The situation
reminded me of a time when Jayden was very little between 2 and 3. Karen and
Orrie took her to church with Allie in Stratford. It was potluck day and they
took food in. Somehow Jayden got left buckled in her car seat in the car. She
was terrified and alone. To this day, I think it created a fear in her to be
alone. She was in the car until the end of Sunday school, then the search
began. Someone suggested looking in the car and there she was crying and
scared. The worst part of this, Mark and I knew nothing about it any of it until
after church when Jayden told us the whole thing. It made me so sad to know she
was in that car crying the whole Sunday school time and nobody knew she was
missing and nobody told us right away.
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