Fire At IHM's Sacristy

Today, upon receiving Rhino 5's SMS at 1630hrs, 'Hi All, IHM Sacristy badly burnt this afternoon. All Masses moved to Church hall', it read just like another other SMS on this scorching and dull afternoon.

However, at 1800hrs, when Melissa and I went to survey the burnt Sacristy before Mass, the true devastation of the conflagration stung me.

The first signs of things amiss were the conspicuously open doors and windows of the whole Church building, left to swing wide open to air the building of the sooty and stale air. Genuflecting upon entering the Church, we went forward to the Altar. My heart was beating faster than usual and i dreaded opening the door of the Sacristy amidst the silence of the Altar. Immediately, a draft thrust the sooty air into my lungs and it was not a pretty sight at all.

At 1120hrs.

The heart-wrenching sights that greeted us.

Despite all the damage inflicted by the fire to the physical infrastructure, personally, there are still many things I thank God for.

Dear Lord, I wanna thank you for...

Keeping each one of us safe - nodody was injured or killed,

The many willing hands who responded quickly and diligently scooped out the soot-laden water puddles from inside the Church building,

The many willing hands who sacrificed time and set up chairs for Mass in the Church Hall,

That the fire happened in the day and not at night.

In the mysterious Grand Plan of Yours, i trust that this fire too, in spite of the destruction it has wrecked, is part of Your Grand Plan. I pray many fruits will show in the long-term - perhaps, there will be better fire safety systems, even more vigilant parishioners, and a more grateful congregation for recognising the privilege of being able to worship in a beautiful Church building when the Sacristy is restored to its full glory and splendour again. Very soon.

In the short-term, immediately after the fire, my spirit was down and heavy-hearted but it was a most heart-warming sight to see that the IHM community is still fervently united in prayer and in the desire to seek our Lord at Mass. So my spirit was immediately uplifted. The Church Hall is thus now the temporary Altar and Church building until the Sacristy is restored.

The Church Hall was packed to the brim at Mass. Yay!

So Lord, you sometimes are really quite strange and hard to understand.

But oh well, I trust in Your infinite wisdom. You alone!

All the earth, will declare
That Your love is everywhere
The fields will exalt, seas resound
Hear the trees’ joyful cry
Praising You and so will I
A new song I’ll sing
Lord, I will glorify and bless Your Name!

-rhino 69-