{"id":49459,"date":"2021-07-01T03:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T07:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=49459"},"modified":"2021-07-01T03:00:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T07:00:23","slug":"gator-finds-its-way-to-church-and-the-pastor-invites-it-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/07\/gator-finds-its-way-to-church-and-the-pastor-invites-it-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"Gator finds its way to church and the pastor invites it inside"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A gator tried cleansing its sins on Tuesday by going right up to a Lehigh Acres church. The encounter was captured on camera, including the pastor of Victory Church getting up close and personal with the big guy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the daycare workers came in and was like \u2018there\u2019s a gator\u2019,\u201d said Daniel Gregory, lead pastor at the church. \u201cI was like \u2018funny’\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there was no joke. A four foot gator crawled out of a nearby storm drain and right up to the place of worship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s coming to church, get ready,\u201d said Gregory in a video he filmed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It made for a great photo op. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefinitely a Florida thing to do, you know,\u201d said Ximena Villasis, who witnessed it all happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pastor got a little closer to the prehistoric predator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe came to our church. I don\u2019t know what his spiritual condition is,\u201d said Gregory. \u201cI need to invite this gator to church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday mornings,\u201d said Gregory in a video where he is seen handing a business card to the gator. \u201cWant to check us out?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the video is meant to be humorous, FWC authorities say it\u2019s not worth the risk to get a couple clicks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe certainly encourage the viewing aspect of it, but we never want you to approach a wild animal like that. It can be very dangerous,\u201d said Adam Brown of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to take a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pastor admits, it wasn\u2019t his best idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gator scurried back into the storm drain after the pastor tried to baptize him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a gator you\u2019d like to have removed, call the FWC Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286) or click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A gator tried cleansing its sins on Tuesday by going right up to a Lehigh Acres church. The encounter was captured on camera, including the pastor of Victory Church getting up… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":49460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[454],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49462,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49459\/revisions\/49462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}