Chapter 13
"Dr. Terry and I are making sure that at least one of us is on call the entire time we're here. We do have a generator at the clinic, but it doesn't run the entire thing, just the refrigerators and some backup lights."
"It makes sense for you guys to move your operations here, although obviously it would not be normal operations," Pastor Mark said, appreciating the fact that people had been taking it upon themselves to contribute where they felt they could.
"And I have coordinated with the department to make sure that I'm able to be here to respond to any issues," Ben said, his arm around Hannah, the closeness of their bodies saying without words their comfortableness toward each other.
"I appreciate that."
"As long as the roads remain passable, I'll be checking on people. But if we get as much snow as what they're calling for, that's not going to last the entire time."
"No. And so far everything has been worse than what they've said, so I don't know why that wouldn't be too.
" Mark didn't believe in being all gloom and doom all the time, but it was true that when things started going south, they usually went south in a hurry and further south than anyone anticipated.
That was just being real, not negative. At least he told himself that.
His eyes drifted across the room where Olivia stood dishing soup out and chatting with Marjorie McBride.
He couldn't think of a better person to be talking to her.
Marjorie was full of wisdom and kindness, and she was just one of those people that anyone could learn something from.
A person didn't have to be in her presence very long before her wisdom started rubbing off.
The church could use a hundred more people like Marjorie.
Of course, everyone had their place, and God had a place for everyone.
"If you have a moment, Pastor, I had an idea," Noah said, interrupting Mark's thoughts.
He nodded at Ben and Hannah as they moved away, confident that any medical emergencies would be taken care of, and that Ben would keep things in order, and also make sure that anyone intent on no good would not get in to harm his congregation.
After all, it would be defeating the purpose to lock the doors.
"I'm all yours." He turned and faced Noah fully. Noah stood with his wife, Grace. His arm was around her, but both of her eyes were on him.
"I was already working on music for Christmas, but since we have everyone here, and I assume that people are going to be a little bit bored and maybe restless, I was wondering if it might be okay to see if we can put together a musical performance.
Something we can do maybe between Christmas and New Year's, a town thing, but considering that this is church property, I thought I'd get your permission. "
"You certainly have my permission." He paused for a moment, thinking about how he had just been thinking about how everyone had their place. There was Noah, donating what he had.
"But?" Noah prompted, as though knowing that Mark had more to say.
"I've had this thought in my head for a while, but I don't know if it's doable on such short notice."
"We're gonna have a lot of time. What's your idea?" Noah asked, looking excited about the challenge.
"I've seen multiple candlelight musical performances. Some with dancing, some with just music, and they always look so magical. I don't know if it's too late for us to do something like that or not?"
He also thought that would give Olivia more business, if they were able to buy the candles from her. He would suggest it if Noah didn't.
Noah glanced over his shoulder. His wife said, "Olivia is here. We can ask her if it would be possible to have... How many candles would that take?" She paused. "I know we could get the musical part down."
Noah nodded. "I agree. Even if we use some of the music that we've already done this season, the candlelight would make it special in a way that it wasn't before."
"The snow would add that magical touch as well."
"And we could clear off an area around the church to do it outside. Although we could practice inside. We wouldn't need to practice the candlelight, of course."
"No, but we might need to figure out how we're going to set them up and light those candles. That might be the thing."
They stood there thinking for a moment, and then Pastor Mark said, "Maybe we should just ask Olivia. She might not be able to get that many candles, although she might be able to estimate how many candles we would need. If she can provide them, she might have an idea about how to light them."
"She is the expert in this area. But with your blessing, maybe I can coordinate with her." Noah seemed thoughtful. Then he said to Pastor, "I'd like to have a short message. Nothing terribly long, but just enough so that people who maybe normally don't go to church might hear the gospel."
"I could do that. Make it non-threatening. Thank you for thinking of that."
"The older I get, the more I realize that the point of my life here is not to make myself happy, but to live for Jesus. It's funny how that becomes more urgent with every passing year."
"Some Christians never get that urgency. And I don't understand why. If you truly believe that Jesus saves, and He saved you from eternity in hell, wouldn't you be desperate to tell as many people as you could?"
He never understood that. But he supposed that was why he ended up being a pastor, because he couldn't shake that urgency, even from his youngest years. Other people didn't seem to be bothered by it at all, which was hard for Mark to comprehend.
"I don't want to take you from other duties if you're busy, Pastor, but if you're not, we could go over and talk to Olivia now." Noah looked at him with a studied gaze that didn't seem to have any ulterior motives.
Mark wasn't sure why that thought struck him, but it did.
Maybe it was because he was eager to go over and talk to Olivia.
"Absolutely. I’m excited about this idea. I've always wanted to put on one of these with the candlelight, and you're right, this is the perfect time to practice."
"But if Olivia doesn't have candles already made, she might have trouble coming up with as many as we need in as short of time as what we need them."
"Yeah. That would be disappointing, but not surprising," Mark said. But he knew that she could use the money. And he was excited that they could give her the work. He just didn't know how she could get it all done.
Unless someone helped her.
Christmas was his busiest time of year, other than possibly Easter. And especially since he was just starting out, he really shouldn't take the time. But the idea of giving Olivia a hand stuck in his brain.
The three of them walked across the floor, greeting people as they went, smelling the delicious smells of the soup rising around them.
For now, people were content and happy, although he could tell that there were some anxious ones among them.
He didn't see any point in getting upset about things. There wasn't anything they could do now while the storm raged around them. The time for looking to see what they could do to fix it would come later. It could be a lot of work. So they might as well enjoy their time off now.
"Hey, Mrs. McBride, do you mind if we steal your helper for a minute?" Noah said, charming Mrs. McBride with a boyish grin.
"I suppose. Then bring her back. We were having a great conversation."
"I enjoy talking to you. I'll definitely be back," Olivia said, patting Mrs. McBride on the arm before she smoothed down her apron and came around the table.
"What can I do to help you guys?" she asked, and Mark figured that she probably had no idea what she was about to get into.
"I'll let Pastor explain," Noah said, exchanging a look with his wife that Mark couldn't read.
"All right." He turned and faced Olivia fully, glancing around to make sure they weren't being overheard. There was no point in announcing it before they were sure they were going to be able to pull it off.
And packed together the way everyone was, rumors were bound to swirl.
"We have an idea, but we're going to need your help to pull it off."
Olivia's brows went up, but she waited, giving him time to speak.
He went over what he and Noah had talked about, and then said, "How many candles do you think that will take?"
"I was just trying to figure that out. It would really depend on what we do.
If we're going to try to fill up the entire parking lot with candles, I'm not sure that will work.
But if we had the musicians on a platform and had candles to finish filling the platform up, that might be a little bit more doable.
" She glanced at Noah. "How soon were you planning on putting this on? "
Mark realized he hadn't mentioned that when he was explaining exactly what they were doing.
"I was hoping between Christmas and New Year's."
Olivia's eyes got huge. Mark could almost see her thinking to herself that she needed the work, but that she didn't know whether she could pull that off or not.
"If you guys don't mind, I just realized that people might not have brought their instruments to the church. Let me go see if we have enough people to even practice something like this," Noah said, and his wife nodded.
"I hadn't even thought about that. Although we do have some extra instruments..." And they walked off, discussing the logistics of the music.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. I can tell from the expression on your face that you probably are thinking that you're not going to be able to pull it off."
"I wish I could. This would be huge. And beautiful. I've always wanted to do something like this. And I have just the design that I've been working on."
"Do you have any extra candles sitting around?"
"I guess we did talk about that. They would not match, though. They'd be an eclectic mix, and I'm not sure how that would look." Her voice seemed to trail off as she thought about it.