I was on set up this morning at church, which is probably the most underappreciated ministry in existence (administrative ministry). Because we meet in a school hall, all of our stuff is stored under a school stage in a crawl space. You have to pull box after box after box of gear out of this dark hole, then a whole lot of instruments, tables, our sound desk and more. Then you spend an hour setting it up. But you're there TWO hours before the service, because of course the musicians need to practise. Often you have heaps of time to kill before the regular friendly people even start to arrive. And the instant the service finishes you have to start packing up again. This time there are the 100 odd people who stick around to talk and get in your way. It can be very frustrating. You're the last people to leave, so if you've been invited over for lunch you're probably late.
Now I'm not complaining. No. Way. I have no problem helping set up from time to time. In fact I enjoy helping out. The selfish part of me wants to be recognised for it but I just tell that part of me to get stuffed. Set up just seems, however, like one of those things that people take for granted. This guy Andre has just stepped down from his position as head of the set up crew. He looked after it for NINE years and we thanked him for that today, but I reckon he's probably gone unthanked for a long time. By some people. I think I need to keep a look out for people who do these painstakingly menial but necessary tasks and remember to thank them for it often. Being taken for granted can be so discouraging.
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