I ended up with a decent dose of influenza this week. I still have not shaken it properly and cough or wheeze easily. Though it began with a bit of a sore throat last Sunday evening and got worse during the week it wasn't till Wednesday that I came home from the office at around 11 a.m. and took the rest of the day off, and then took Thursday off. On Friday I went in at 9 a.m. and we did not finish drop-in until 10:30 p.m. but I must admit to not working really hard all day. We had a Space2B family night at the church on Saturday, which included screening the local Rugby World Cup rugby match. Tonight we open the Church for another game. I learned a few things.
* Essentially I have not done much chaplaincy work this week. I figured it would be irresponsible of me to go visiting people. As I reflected on my week, I got to feeling how much easier it would be for me to be just a minister, and not to have the outside chaplaincy responsibilities. Life would be less rushed, I would have more time to be with my Church people and to be more creative around church. I would not, however, have the added interests in my life and the cut and thrust of working amongst in secular surroundings. I love that aspect of chaplaincy. I am not a minister cloistered among religious people and that makes my life interesting.
* As I have laid in bed, occasionally trying to catch up on emails and other work, I have reflected on our lifestyle. From Tuesday night, including tonight, my wife has been out to a church meeting or taking part in a church function every night.- 6 nights (I have had the flu all week and will have been out four nights) I worked out that at a minimum estimate this week she has done thirty voluntary hours for the church. This week had an extra thrown in but most weeks she would probably do somewhere around 25 - 30. My daughter would probably average around 6- 10 hours a week. (A Church man once questioned her and her husband's commitment - partly because they do not get involved in the bureaucracy... but if more gave half as much time, what couldn't we do?) Stopping for two days made me realise how busy our lives are. Not sure where to go with that but it was an insight. People blissfully say "We as a church do a lot of community service." As I reflected on this there are about 8-9 people in the church busting their guts to enable this to happen.
* I thought I'd reflect on an event that happened at Church last week. We have a guy comes to Church called Robbie. (He prefers "Robert") He initially came to our drop-in centre and sat in a corner saying not much. I played endless games of pool with him and we got to know him. Slowly he became more and more involved in our Church community. Now he helps out at the drop-in centre. He also comes early on a Sunday morning to help set things up, make some coffee and welcome people. He is unemployed, single and in his 50's. He has had a tough childhood, is not the most highly talented person, but when he takes on a job he is loyal. After Church we have an informal time with hot drinks. Robbie was cleaning up taking a tray of cups back to the kitchen. They slid on the tray and crashed to the floor with several breakages. I was chatting to one of the church leaders nearby at the time. He looked at the mess and said, "Well that was clever wasn't it?" I was quite annoyed and quickly assured Robbie that accidents happen to us all. What interested me was that 55 year old, often cheeky, Robbie reverted to being a little boy. "So sorry about that! I'll clean up the mess. I will replace the cups! So sorry!" Where was he coming from. I pointed out that people who do nothing never break cups. That it was because every Sunday he is helpful and doing stuff that cups broke. No he did not have to replace the cups, and I was pleased a number of people set into helping him clean up the mess. When I took Robbie home again he was still apologising and I was still saying "Hey it is alright!" As we thought about it later we guessed that Robbie's father probably pounced on him for every error. His bosses probably pounced on him. It was sad that as soon as it happened he expected that we would pounce on him. I think I finally got through to him that we appreciate his efforts and the little breakages were just an unfortunate accident and that's OK. ... I have a theory that we all need re parented by supporting communities of love. Somehow we as parents hurt our children, and one of the tasks of the church, and workplaces and other groups of people is to "re parent us" with unconditional love. Robbie and I often sling cheek at each other, but we really have a brotherly love.
Photo: Robbie is on the right. Emi is next to him. Tonight I am thankful for them both. I hope I contribute to their life.
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