Remember Stanly? My 50 year old boss who wanted to share a full-sized bed with me? He is a fountain of awkward situations.

One day, we were driving to work in his blue 15 passenger van, and he suddenly pulled into the parking lot of a church. It was a friday afternoon, I think. Stanly knew that my wife and I were looking for a church to attend, and he thought he could help me out.

We were greeted by the receptionist who asked if she could help us with anything. Stanly asked if one of the pastors was in. One of them was, so the lady went and brought him to us. It was about that time that I realized that Stanly clearly didn’t know anyone at this church, and nobody knew Stanly. The receptionist clearly didn’t recognize him, and there was no look of recognition on the pastor’s face when he walked in the room either. I began to wonder what we were doing there, until Stanly made it painfully clear to me. He says to the pastor, “Mike here is looking for a church. He is a real nice guy, he’s been to Bible school and he’s looking for opportunities to serve… maybe you have a position open for him to come and join you guys here.” The pastor looked at me, and I looked at him and tried to communicate with my eyes that I had no idea what Stanly was talking about. Maybe he got the message because he kindly suggested that I attend a few services and get to know some people before trying to join their staff.  Needless to say, I haven’t been back.

Mike – Calgary, AB