Sophie's Visit

We had an unexpected guest at the Campus Ministry worship service and dinner tonight. One of my students showed up with Sophie, a small white dog. He found her on the street near the church while walking to the worship service. She appeared to be lost and scared. Fortunately, she had a tag with her name and the owner’s phone number. He called but the owner was not home, so he left a message.

For a little while, Sophie was shaking like mad, obviously terrified. We took Sophie into the chapel for the worship service. Alissa (the Methodist chaplain I work with) tucked her into her sweatshirt and held her throughout the service. Part way through the service, Sophie calmed down and went to sleep. After the worship service, we went into the Upper Lounge for dinner. We took Sophie with us and gave her some water and fed her some of the pork we had for dinner (we hope she's not Jewish). By the end of dinner, we still had not heard from Sophie’s owner, so Alissa decided to leave another message for the owner and took Sophie home with her.

Alissa just called to tell me that Sophie’s owner had called and is on her way to Alissa’s house to retrieve Sophie. The owner, an elderly woman, had been out to dinner. Apparently, someone made a delivery to her house and left the gate open. When the owner returned home, she found Sophie missing and was hysterical. But then she found the messages from Alissa and immediately called.

All’s well and Sophie and her owner will shortly be reunited. Our ministry helped brighten the day of both a frightened little dog and her distraught owner. I guess in ministry, you end up doing all sorts of unexpected things. That’s what makes it so interesting – and fun.

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