What a Week!

I really don't like to blog when I'm in a whiny, woe-is-me kind of mood. So, I haven't blogged this week. I'm on some hefty pain killers & it really messes with my mood.

I do have some really good things to share. I had a ladies' meeting last Friday night & it went so well!!! I did a devotion using the letters in the word FALL. It went over really well, and several mentioned that it really spoke to them. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I'm not great at doing the devotions. I'm too wordy! lol! At least they were jumping in and adding their thoughts. It was a great time of fellowship. We ended up talking and laughing until almost 11 p.m. Our cell phones started going off all at about the same time. Seems that our husbands all began to worry at the same time. At least they care!!!

Sunday we had our first official business meeting at the church. My husband has been working with the men of the church since he became Pastor. They had no constitution or bylaws or anything official! They had nothing legal to stand on if something happened. So, Sunday our church voted on the constitution/bylaws for the church. The vote was UNANIMOUS to accept it!!! Woo-Hoo!!!! It was so good for my sweet hubby.

The former pastor has been sort of a thorn in the flesh. He constantly calls people of our church and plants seeds of doubt in their minds and hearts. I'm not sure why he's doing this. He's the one who recommended my husband in the first place!

Nothing had been done "decently and in order" while he was the pastor. He & one other man made all of the decisions. When DH became the pastor, the people began to voice their feelings about being left out of the loop. This is what prompted us to implement changes...the first one being that the church as a whole votes on decisions. The people are very happy with this change.

He (former pastor) left the church with a car. He said that it was so that my DH would have something "pastoral" to drive around. It's a huge boat of a car! I told my hubby that it's more like Noah's Ark! lol. Anyway, after DH took over, he found out that this car is draining the church financially and that the car doesn't belong to the church -- it is in the former pastor's name! He bought the car new in 2006. In 2 years he put almost 100,000 miles on it. He still owes over $16,000 on it and it's blue book value is only $6,500!!!!

Once the church figured out all of this, they realized that he wasn't doing us any favor by sticking us with this financial burden. My DH called him and told him "thanks, but no thanks" (yes, I watch Sarah Palin when gives a speech). He said to DH, "Too bad. My first priority is to get my wife the house of her dreams here in Florida. The church took the car so it's their responsibility now." WHAT??? I don't understand his reasoning in this! The church didn't vote to take over the car. He just announced that, since the church had been making the payments as part of his salary, they could keep the car. We never voted on it or anything! It was just stated as a matter of fact.

The thing is this...he purchased the car for himself before he was the pastor of our church. Then, he asked one man if the church could make his car payment as part of his salary so that he wouldn't get hit hard with taxes. How on earth do you go from that to assuming the church is permanently responsible for this car????

At the business meeting the church got to vote on what to do with the car. My husband has forgone his pay for now because the church is small & needs to pay its bills first. We had prayed for a long time that the church would want to get rid of this car. We knew that some of the people have a soft spot for the former pastor which is only normal. What we did not know was that he'd been calling different families and asking them to purchase the car in their name to get it out of his, and then have the church make the car payment. Apparently the church was sick of the whole car situation, too. One man made a motion to put it on a car carrier & ship it to Florida to the former pastor. Another person second the motion, and the church voted unanimously to ship it back to him. I have to tell you -- I was VERY glad. The one lady said, "If we can't afford to pay our current pastor, then why would we want to keep making a car payment for the former one? He stuck us with a lemon."

Repentantly I must admit that I've felt the same way over that car. It has been a sore subject with me ever since my husband became the pastor. I've had some harsh feelings toward the former pastor and I've had to ask God for forgiveness. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that he, knowing the financial state of the church, would stick us with this huge burden.

It was so nice to leave the business meeting in one accord!!! I've been to some very heated business meetings and was very leery about how this was going to go. I'm just so glad that God went ahead and worked on hearts. What an AWESOME God we serve!!!!

Sunday night I ended up in the ER. I had to get X-Rays of my foot. It's a sprain, but WOW -- it HURT! While in there to get treated for my foot, they hooked me up to an IV of antibiotics because I mentioned that I had some back pain. They did the "please force yourself to pee even though you don't have to go" thing. It came back that I still have the kidney infection. She put the IV in the vein on my wrist. I must say that it HURT LIKE CRAZY! Never have I had anyone put an IV there before. Then, when I was finished she couldn't get it to stop bleeding! They took several tubes of blood to test me for...well, who knows what because they don't tell me even when I ask. I really dislike that hospital. Get this...their huge bill board advertisements are, "xxx Regional Hospital -- the closest hospital" -- not the best or the fastest or anything really good. Nope, their hook is that they are the closest. lol.

Since I can't use crutches because my left foot is too numb from the MS, I've had to stay off my foot all week. It's still hurting like crazy. I'm still being reassured that it is "only" a sprained ankle, and that the MS is causing the pain to be excessive. UGH!

Well, if you've read this far...thanks! Told ya I was too wordy! lol.

Love,
Stacey