Wonderful Wednesday/ Thursday for the books!

So Wednesday started out as a great day. Lots of work to be done, lots of work accomplished. I got a chance to be at Southwoods for some presentations and see ALexa and P.J. in action at their school. I was cruising along through the day, but not too much happening to make note of. I got everyone picked up and on their way to youth, we had a good group at youth and played a game afterward which went really well. The kids seemed to have had a blast! THen they hit, I couldn't hardly stand up any more. I had these excruciating pains in my lower back. So much so that I had to sit down for a few minutes. I got my composure and got everyone loaded up that I had to take home. Started on the journey home and the pain was almost unbearable at this point. Two different times during the ride taking kids home I had to stop and pull over to throw up not because of feeling sick, but because of the pain. I finally made it home and had to have Tara take the last 2 kids home for me. I laid in the bathroom floor for a while, then threw up some more, laid on the couch and the bed, and in the bathtub full of hot water. Nothing seemed to truly take the edge off for more than about 10 minutes or so. So rotated all through the night from couch and heating pad, to puking in the toilet, to a hot bath. Finally, about 5am the pain was bearable enough that I dozed off for a few minutes until the alarm went off at 6. I called the doctor and this is where it got strange.
I got in to see Dr. Batenhorst at about 9:45, I stood in the hallway for about 30 minutes while they tried to get my insurance information. Tara had signed us up for new insurance in August and started having it taken out of her paycheck in September yet we were not insured according to Blue Cross, Blue Shield. So I stood there knowing I didn't really want to pay full price for all that was about to happen. So, Linda let me go in and see Batenhorst with the understanding that I would settle up with her on the 30th. We're broke, got no money for all this and I'm considering just sucking it up and leaving when she told me this.
So I get in to see todd and he gets me some prescriptions and some samples. The pain meds were all I was interested in and I finally got back to the front desk where we stood as I took turns with another lady in the office being on hold with BLue Cross Blue shield. Linda finally told me to go home, and I did. I went home and laid back on teh heating pad, threw up a little, and took a long hot shower. Then I started calling the pharmacy about my prescriptions and they had not been called in. Todd wanted me to have a ct scan, but I refused because of the insurance situation. Then I called Linda and found out at now 4:30 that they had given me the prescription to turn in on my way out the door, deetedee! Dumb move of the week on my part. So I finally drove to Kmart to get my prescriptions(at full price ofcourse) and while waiting for them to get filled Linda called and found out that the school board had been taking the money out for insurance, and had all the applications we had filled out but had not sent them in until last week. So, Blue Cross BLue Shield had the applications but we weren't entered into teh system yet. Linda took care of all of that and let me know that I could go have the scan and she would have them bill Dr. Batenhorst for it and we could settle up later.
What a day, what a day! I am ready for some weekend relaxation tomorrow for sure!

My strange life

So I am in full swing right now, I can't even go and enjoy my Chaplaincy at Pedro right now we are so busy trying to fullfill the needs of our grant at Betty Griffin House. I am doing about 3-4 presentations in hastings each day this week, then Monday night I was in the church I told you about yesterday and last night I found myself in Flagler College talking to the RA's about rape. How funny is that, the girls all walked in last night just as it was about time to start and you could almost read their faces, that they thought they were in the wrong place when they saw that there was a man there to talk with them. Then one of them almost fell out of her chair when I mentioned that I was a Pastor. What a twisted, strange journey my ministry has turned out to be. To go from full time youth pastor to bi-vocational pastor and sexual/domestic violence community educator. If you had at any point told me I would end up in a room full of college students telling them about rape, giving statistics about it, talking and defining consent and the affects of alcohol on the brain I would have laughed hysterically. As odd as it sounds it was actually a lot of fun, the girls wouldn't leave when it was over, they stuck around asking questions and digging deeper into my family life, ministry and community educator views on things and how I got where I am.
So have a great day and thanks for reading.

Moved again

So Monday was wide-open no time to breathe, not time to think except for about 30 minutes. I got up typed out my blogs and started on my presentations for the day. I did some paper work, made some phone calls when I got to the office and then I was off and running. I put the paycheck in the bank, checked the mail at the house and ran off to Southwoods to do 3 presentations. It was one, then a lunch break(where I did some studying and reading) then 2 more presentations back to back. After that we had a parent-teacher meeting with P.J.'s kindergarten teacher which surprisingly had nothing to do with behavior(I know I'm still shocked myself). Then I went home quickly to work out and do some studying before I went to Mt. Carmel Primitive Baptist CHurch for a presentation on violence.
Here I was, I stopped in a little early and there was no one there, not one soul. I sat in teh parking lot and read a little then out of no where kids started showing up. They meet in a small little sanctuary, with just a handful of adults and it was awesome! They sang a few songs, said the Lord's Prayer and then said the pledge. Then I was introduced and talked to them about violence. They had about 25 or more kids packed into this little sanctuary. No youth house, no video games, no band, no outdoor games and snacks, just a Bible study and some games and the kids were there. Just the way God intended it, nothing but business. The kids sat and listened, they were completely respectful and asked good questions afterward. I went from a meeting last Thursday with other youth pastors worried about cut budgets and developing leaders to a small church that seats about 50 or 60 packed with little kids and teenagers excited to be at church and sing about Jesus! How moving it was for me, so moving that I offered my services to help them out each Monday evening in teh future. Not just that, but they actually meet on Mondays and Thursdays, and on the 4th Sunday the service is completely children and teenager led.
So thanks again for reading and have a great day!

Long weekend

For once my weekend didn't seem to disappear before my very eyes. I was a task oriented person this weekend as I accomplished all that I needed to Saturday in order to face Sunday.
Friday night however started off a little bit on the rough side. It started off with me seeing our football team lose a nail biter to Middleburge. 18-17. We faught hard, we just couldn't execute the way we needed to. A few calls, a few breaks and it would have been a totally different game, but it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe, we needed another little reality check before we start our district schedule with Palatka, Atlantic and Clay all in the next 3 weeks. Three wins and we're in the playoffs one loss and we're out, so the games get more and more important each week!
Saturday I got up and changed the oil in Tara's Suburban, my dad and I put new brakes on my truck, we fixed a wiring problem on my race car and then I headed out to the church. At the church P.J. and I put up the new Power Point Projector Screen, set up the new screen on teh Lap Top, moved the pulpit out and straightened things up for Sunday morning worship. Then, that evening Tara and I put the final touches on the bulletin for worship.
Sunday went off well, worship was good, we had a great crowd considering we were missing 3 of our most regular families this week. If we ever get everyone together we'll have a good looking crowd for sure.
So the weekend went well, I believe we should have the trim painted on the church by now and things are looking up for us, we're knocking down a lot of projects each week.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!