For those of you that follow the big C Church calendar you will know that yesterday was Pentecost and for those of you that don’t follow the big C Church calender, yesterday was Pentecost. Currently, what I find to be the most interesting thing about Pentecost—because of yesterday’s sermon by our pastor, Terry Fach—is that Pentecost became the first day that Christianity (as it would later become known as) would be for all people.

(1) When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. (2) And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. (3) Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. (4) All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. – Acts 2:1-4 (NRSV)

It’s at this moment (textually) that Christianity becomes more than another sect, destined to die out, of Judaism, but a message for all people, in all languages—love, grace and hope. On Saturday, I am proud to say, that I lived out this sacred message. I realize that I didn’t hear the message until Sunday, but time doesn’t matter/exist—just ask Tracy.

Leah and I, admittedly, had let the house degrade to a certain point over the last two weeks and so we spent a large part of the day cleaning. At one point in the day, I was taking the garbage out, including a very heavy bag of used kitty litter, and Leah was cleaning out the vacuum filter. It was at this point that a woman who lived in the next building had locked herself out of her apartment. (It should be noted that our apartment building is managed by a woman named Mary and the building next to us is managed by Mary’s sister Sharon. They share responsibilities and help each other out.) This woman who had locked herself out came over to ask us if Mary was around, because Sharon was at work.

A quick and slightly humorous back story. Leah, though a woman of incredible beauty, has a certain tendency to be a bit forgetful—but only from time-to-time. One such time last summer, Leah locked herself out of the apartment—this is when I was working at Green Drop. (Side note: Anyone else notice I am going totally dash crazy in this post? I am unstoppable.) Luckily, Leah had left the window open so I came, heroically, to her rescue and shimmied the screen off and Leah climbed in. I guess it’s more humorous to me than anyone else.

Back to living the Gospel message. After encountering this locked out woman and seeing her attempt to also pry out her window screen was inspired by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! HALLELUJAH! Unfortunately the spirit singed my favourite shirt. I offered to help this woman break into her apartment.

I ran into the house for a flat-head screwdriver, for leveraging purposes. I came back out and I swear I could hear the trumpets shouting, praising. At first there didn’t seem to be any hope, but I kept my faith alive. I started to pry the top right corner and successfully released it, but as I slowly moved down the right side it became evident to me that it wouldn’t budge until I released either the top or bottom of the screen. Our apartment screen window had a bit of give and this one didn’t. But, after a little wiggling, I got the bottom to raise up and I thought—Praise be to God! Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. There was no hope. The screen wasn’t going to come out.

Then the woman tried, unsuccessfully. I said I don’t think it’s going to come out. It was a nice day so she went for a walk until Sharon got home. I went back inside to keep cleaning. All in all, it was a bit anti-climatic, but that’s real-world faith.