Hey there – remember back around Easter time this year, when David and Mary Jones were told by San Diego County that they couldn’t hold a Bible study in their private home?

Aren’t you glad it couldn’t happen in your own town? I was sure it couldn’t happen in my town. I was positive it couldn’t happen in my town.

Imagine my surprise when it happened, not only in my town, but to my own Bible study group.

Yes, the same place that I’ve been working on the gameroom – that had to be called a gameroom because the City of Phoenix wouldn’t let the Pastor build a multi-use room on his own property for the use of his family and friends.

We’ve been meeting as a group for a couple of years at the Pastor’s house. We used to meet in the garage, but it was going to be uncomfortable in the summer and we knew that. The Pastor started applying for permits shortly after moving into the house to build a building specifically for the Bible study group. His first mistake was in saying that he wanted the building so the Bible study group could meet in comfort. (the garage, while somewhat insulated and having two AC units fitted to it and having ceiling fans to help spread the cooled air, was still warm the first summer we were meeting there. in fact, the city inspectors noted that there were ceiling fans in the garage area – and then wrote a warning about them!) The city, in it’s wisdom, decided that he couldn’t build a church. Pastor didn’t want to build a church, he wanted to build a detached, separately cooled and powered room that could be designated as the meeting room for the Bible study group.

So, the hoops started. Pastor would jump through five or six that the city would set up, only to find out that he didn’t need to jump through the last two, but these seven over here instead. More than once he was given conflicting information by members of the same office in the City of Phoenix. During the same time frame, one of his neighbors was handed a permit for a media room – over the counter, without having to submit plans – while Pastor was spending lots of money on an architect and a General Contractor to get his smaller room built.

Here’s the kicker – video of the cops and the inspectors swarming the property: pardon my non-video embededness.

Like I said, I never thought it would happen in my own town.

Chat ya later…

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