Where’s Tanner?

Our pastor mentioned Tanner in his sermon on Sunday.  It was a nice surprise for me to hear him tell the story again.  Later that day, I found myself reliving the moment.

We had been attending the Orientation class at this new church…..this was our third time!  We had told one of the Sunday School teachers that Tanner was difficult to watch.  He has autism and he didn’t behave like all the normal five year olds.  They gave us a pager and off we went.  On our way back to get him, the pager went off.  When we arrived at the classroom, they told us that Tanner had gotten out of the class and they were looking for him.  Can you imagine my terror?  The most feared words in my vocabulary are “Where’s Tanner?”.  My first reaction was to run outside but then I stopped myself and just ran all around the upstairs of the chuch.  I just could not imagine where he might be.  It wasn’t long before they found him.  He was outside in the parking lot.  I cried all the way home from church.  Steve and I really felt like this was supposed to be our new church home because our old church had not been able to help us deal with Tanner.  I felt really lost.

A few days later, someone called from the church wanting to check on us and see how Tanner was doing.  She said that they wanted to figure out a way that Tanner could come back to church.  I told her that we didn’t want to be any trouble and that we would probably go back to one of us going to one service while the other stayed with Tanner and then switching.  I really remember what she said to me.  She said “don’t think that you are being troublesome, this will give someone the opportunity to serve”.  That was a big thought for me at the time.  I told the staff member that I would be happy to hear what they came up with. 

The next day she called and said that they were going to assign someone to watch Tanner one on one and that actually, someone had already volunteered.  When I asked who, she kind of laughed and said that it was Paul, who was the Sunday school teacher that had let Tanner get away!!!!  Oh my, I thought.  How can I do this?  I was really unsure so I told her I would talk to my husband about it and get back to her.

I called her back the next day and said that we would give it a try.  That Sunday, Mr. Paul started watching Tanner while Steve and I went to church together.  This was the beginning of the Lifeguard program at our church.  Now there are many children that have Lifeguards during church so that their parents can worship together, not one at a time.  What a blessing for us and for so many others!  This is what our pastor focused on in his message……serving those that can’t serve you back.  There are so many wonderful Lifeguards who love our kids for who they are!!!!  It is a true display of God’s love.

Looking back at that scary day……I learned 2 very important lessons.  First, my gut reaction had been to run outside but I had not.  Yet Tanner was found outside.  Always trust your gut reaction as a mom!!!  Secondly, I figured out that Tanner does what he is familiar with.  At that time, the only thing he knew about church was going in the door, up the stairs to the room and then back out to the parking lot.  In all likelihood, he was probably found near our car!!! 

And then the bigger lesson from the whole experience is that God has a plan and sometimes His methods are very unconventional!