It was a cold winter Sunday morning no different than any other, or so I thought. I always helped downstairs where the children were and took care of them and even taught them sometimes while their parents were upstairs listening to the sermon. So this Sunday there wasn't really a lesson planned so we just had fun and made some arts and crafts. I could hear the kids arguing that “that was their color” or “I wanted that toy, I was playing with it first”. I let it slide because I knew they would get over it eventually.
I saw him out of the corner of my eye. a man who’s body language showed me that he was nervous. I have never saw this man at the church before. He had a big backpack on and I knew that he looked out of place however I thought that he was coming to help and fix the heating because we had been having some problems with that at the time so I just ignored it. But then I heard the THUMP THUMP of his boots coming in and out of the room.. Let me tell you something he did not smell that pleasant either. So after watching him sneakily move his way around the church I decided that was enough so I told one of the other helpers to stay down there as I stealthily followed him up the steps. I felt like every little noise the steps made were one noise away from getting me killed.
I could feel the rugged paint job of the walls as my hand slowly glided up against them. Suddenly as I got closer to Agan hall I could smell the scent of fresh brewed coffee and doughnuts and pretzels just waiting to be eaten but I had to stay on track. I saw Mike and I got his attention as soon as I could and told him what was going on but then soon ran back to where the man was standing. He then walked out of the office unexpectedly and said “Hello”.I looked at him in fear I could feel my mouth start to become dry and sweat start to drip down my forehead.. But I had to say something backs and somehow not be suspicious. “Hey! I’m Jordan sorry I didn't mean to scare you I just came to print some pictures for the kids to color.” I said. “Oh, it’s no problem, nice to meet you.” It was weird, he was oddly calm just then but walking away he had seemed so tense. I saw him head back downstairs so I called my fellow helper and told her to lock the doors and take the kids out of that room and put them in one of the classrooms lock the doors and keep the lights off. I am not a mother but in that moment my mother instincts kicked in. I then told one of the ladies near me to call the police, her face dropped and a rush of fear came over her, I then explained that everything was going to be fine, the kids are safe downstairs but there is someone in the building that should not be here. I looked outside just to make sure things out there were okay and I saw a brown box sitting right in the middle of the walkway it looked kind of mangled and did not look like it had anything in it so I went out there to make sure there was nothing in it and it was all clear. I quickly pulled out my phone and texted my mom who was in the service and told her to come to the lobby.. She came out and I explained the situation to her but before I could finish he came up the stairs and headed outside. Our eyes were wide open and filled with fear as we all watched as he headed to someone's car and started banging on the windows and screaming, thankfully the cops showed up. We later found out that his old college professor was at church and he wanted to get revenge on him because he apparently ruined his life. He was then arrested and later taken to a mental facility. To this day I still wonder what could have happened if I didn't do anything and ignored it, would he have hurt anyone?