It was time to start packing for our October 4th outreach at Lighthouse Mission in Patchogue. We had our puppet stage, puppet curtains, our object lessons, our CD's, Shelton the Shark, Loudmouth & Cry Baby and Grandpa Lou...uh...where is Grandpa Lou? He must be in the Felowship Center basement. After looking everywhere, still no Grandpa Lou. Maybe he is in the Auditorium on top of the stage? No, still no Grandpa Lou. Maybe I left him in my garage? No, he's not there. Okay, time to retrace our steps. It appears the last time Grandpa Lou was used was at the Jones Beach outreach. Did we leave him there? No, we couldn't have! Maybe just maybe the Seniors at SCS decided to kidnap him and wanted to leave a ransom note. I hopwe they don't want a million dollars, I only have 5 dollars in my wallet. Then, I discovered that we did minister at another outreach between Jones beach and October 3rd. Did we leave him in Brentwood? Should I call that church to find out? Where could he be? Is he protesting that I haven't been using him?
The Royal Rangers packed up the church trailer the night before for a weekend campout in inghampton, NY. Is it possible we left him in the trailer for over a month and a half? Well, after a few quick phone calls I finally got through to Tim Reed, one of our Royal Ranger commanders. "Tim, this is going to sound like a strange question but...did you see anything else in the trailer when you packed it last night, like Granda Lou?" "It was too dark to tell but we did see a box covered with a blanket in the trailer." It had to be Grandpa Lou!
During our outreach my cell phone vibrated and I let it go straight to voicemail. Later, I listened to the message that simply said that Grandpa Lou was alive, well, breathing and in fact at a campout with our Royal Rangers in Binghampton, NY. My only fear...I hope that don;t leave him by the camp fire. HE WILL MELT!
Grandpa Lou's "Home sweet Home" from August 16th to October 5th. Poor Guy!
