There Was a Snake in the Church?

It was late afternoon, everyone else had gone home.  I had just finished adding some new announcement slides in the sound booth for Sunday morning's service and there he was...at the bottom of the stairs...a snake.  He had his head reared and was staring right at me with those beady little eyes. 

I wasn't sure what kind of snake he was so I snapped a picture with my phone and retreated to the stairs on the other side of the booth and went to my office to do some research.  I googled snakes in Missouri and found that he was an innocent Midland Brown Snake, harmless to humans but not so much for slugs, etc.  I went to the kitchen and found a small bucket (a container slightly larger than a butter tub and put it over the top of him.  I texted the picture to the worship pastor since we would be having practice in a couple of hours.  He wasn't to enthused...his exact words were "please get rid of it".

This amused me a little, a couple of years ago there was a teeny tiny snake in the hall heading towards the furnace closet and our senior pastor stepped on him and called for me to come get this snake!  I wasn't too keen on picking up a snake but thought I was going to be tough and get rid of the big mean snake for the sake of my pastor.  The snake looked more like a big night crawler but I took him outside and let him go.

Now here was a similar situation except that I had discovered the snake and knew I could take care of him if I needed to.  I left and ran some errands and returned just before the worship pastor arrived.  The drummer had come early to practice, I told him about the coldhearted beast and he went to check him out.  Much to my surprise, he didn't want to have anything to do with him either.  I just haven't experienced this much since my husband will pick up almost anything and put almost any creature in his mouth...he is the opposite extreme which is an entirely different problem.

Needless to say, the worship pastor did not appreciate the fact that the snake was still around.  I got a couple pieces of paper and the drummer and I worked together to slide the container onto the paper so I could pick him up (I'm still not thrilled about touching them).  We flipped him over and he was now securely?...in the tub.  And I just couldn't help myself...I chased the worship pastor with the tub o' snake.  He ran and called me a jerk which made me laugh even harder.  I relented, took him outside to the grass and let him go.

I proceeded to tell another vocalist about the incident and the only thing he said (repeatedly) was "there was a snake in the church?"

Really...this snake was only 9 or 10 inches long at most.  He was tiny.  At the end of the night I did tell the worship pastor that I put it in his car but then said I was kidding...he wasn't so sure and I imagine that was a difficult drive home for him.