this is no longer my blog

When I first moved here, to this little town, there were five high school girls in the youth director's office, planning the upcoming youth service. My supervising pastor introduced us, and then the seven of us went and unloaded my car (that's all I brought was a carload of stuff). Later that night, as I was wandering around the empty, dark house (several of the lights seemed to burn out that day... and I was still trying to figure out where other lights/light switches were) I saw people moving in my front yard. I fell to the ground behind the couch, a little freaked out, wondering what the heck was going on. I heard some chattering and then some laughter. Upon further inspection I saw the high school girls, along with some other youth, filling my yard with plastic flamingoes. It was quite a welcome to my internship site!
They've only been used a handful of times since then, and the youth director, who used to keep them in her office, has since resigned. This evening in the midst of a Bible study/youth worship service planning meeting we decided to flamingo the yard of one of the high school girls who didn't show up. She's normally a very involved member of the youth, participating in a lot of stuff such as the contemporary worship band and Vacation Bible School and the like. But she did not come tonight because she was "too tired." So we thought it would be fun to flamingo her yard to let her know she was missed, but also in retaliation for her not coming.
Only one problem. The flamingos? Yeah, they're missing.
We searched EVERY ROOM. Even rooms we were sure they were not in. We turned on lights, we looked in boxes, we looked in rafters. We even walked outside in the cold to check the garage/shed behind the church. They were nowhere to be found.
We called supervising pastor. He suggested we try the youth room (we did. not there.). He suggested we try the youth directors office (we did. same story.). He suggested we try the attic (we did. our labors were still in vain.).
So it appears this large box of plastic flamingoes, and several large wooden ones with writing on them, have just decided to use their wire legs to walk off. It's a bit unsettling. So I've decided to put a little "Missing" blurb in our next newsletter. Perhaps someone borrowed them to put them in someone's yard and then they never got brought back. Perhaps if I do the blurb, they'll think "I REALLY should get those flamingoes back to church." Or perhaps they are just gone forever. That is definitely the more unfortunate option, and hopefully the least true. But only time will tell, I suppose.