Update on Life

Well I made it through my first Christmas as a Pastor.  ALMOST everything went well.

Christmas Eve day I was feeling good. I only had a few more visits to do, the Christmas Eve Bulletin was done and printed, we we finishing up the newsletter and the bulletin for December 28th was printed!  I felt good about that and excited for service.  I was even more excited to take some time off to visit family.

Then it happened…….

I reached down to pick up a newsletter for the copier and on my way back up I felt a pinch in my back……that was not good.

Just to give you a little history I have had on again and off again back trouble.  Back in May I had a terrible accident that you can read about here.  I know that I should take care of it on an ongoing basis, however when it feels good it is not really on my mind.

Needless to say I was worried, I did not know how I could make it through Christmas and I was worried about traveling with a bad back.

I was able (barely) to make it through the first service.  We had a lot of people at service and half way through communion I had to sit down because I was in so much pain.  Doing that gave me a new perspective on communion and I might reflect on that later down the road.

I actually called one of the deacons 45 min before the second service was going to start and told him that I could not come in.  I was in so much pain that I could not even stand up.  He lead the service without a problem.

The next day I laid down as we did Christmas presents and things progressively got worse throughout the day.  I ended up going to the ER and waited for 5 hours just to get told that it was a muscle thing — but they did give me some good pain killers. 

We decided to go ahead with our vacation plans……I know sitting at home would not be the best for me (Because I need to be up and moving) and I wanted to see family and friends during this time off.

So here we are in Vermont, hanging out with my family.

More updates as the week progresses…..