What is happening in Burien? We pastor a small church in Burien at 16640 1st Ave. S. Let me tell you how our summer has gone.

We had homeless people accessing our neighbors' properties, using ours as a walk-through. Trying to be compassionate, all of us told them they had to move on.

The code enforcement department was notified of the situation by the police.

After a visit to their settlements, our neighbors were told to remove their garbage or be fined by the City of Burien.

A few days later, a member of our congregation was given a truck so he could seek work. He left it on the property until he could get it licensed. Someone decided to torch it!

No insurance coverage was on the truck. The incident was ruled arson, causing $10,000 worth of damage to the church property.

During the clean up of that mess, we were using our personal dump trailer, a $10,000 value, which was then stolen from the property.

We found out that personal auto insurance would not pay for it because it was not taken from off the truck, homeowners wouldn't cover it because it was not stolen from our house.

The church insurance did give us half of the amount, because they originally thought it was covered under a secondary insurance but found out later that was not the case. But it was gracious to cover some on it.

Within a few days of our trailer being stolen, we started receiving phone calls at our home, and on our personal cell telling us we were lousy citizens and attacking our church affiliation.

This call came from a property manager somewhere in Tukwila, where garbage had been dumped onto his complex from the stolen trailer.

We could not return his calls because it always showed "private caller."

Last night the shed we just built was broken into and two push mowers, a weed eater and a blower are now gone.

There was a time that no one ever thought of stealing from churches.

We have never had any problems at our property until this summer.

This could be telling us more about the conditions in our Burien community than anything you hear or read.

If you have any information regarding these incidents please help the King County Sheriff.

If this happened to us, a church, there will be no respect for your homes. Secure your properties.

Rev. David Ash
Burien Church of God