Mid week report, goodbyes, stress and celebrations.

Edith - one year old today!

A goodbye...  On Monday morning I drove my beaten up Toyota Corolla to the auction place where they sell off written off cars. Even though the insurance payout is better than expected it is still sad to see the end of an essentially good car that I had hoped would last us a long time. 
No day off...   On Monday afternoon I drove out to spend time with the daughter of the man whose funeral I will take on Friday. In the evening I did some work toward helping her to plan the funeral. Monday is meant to be my day off and now it is midweek I am really feeling the lack of a day of rest. 
Night Shelter challenges...   I am chairman of the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust and we also run Phoenix Lodge which provides transitional housing for ex-prisoners.  Both places are always raising issues that get passed on to me to deal with. The numbers of people using the Night Shelter are increasing and the problems that these people bring with them are becoming more complex. K2 drug is causing issues in the house and the clientele seem to be more unsettled in general.  Funding for the shelter is never easy and sometimes I feel like throwing in the towel. I don't know how to tackle the issues, where to begin even on some of them. All of us on the Trust have busy lives so it is often not easy to make headway on problems.  But we have come a big distance from having no Dunedin shelter, and I guess we will continue to overcome the obstacles. It will always be an ongoing journey and problems will always be the nature of such work.
Stress...   I always get stressed about leading funerals and this one is no exception. It is so distracting having it hanging over my head to do. The Night Shelter issues stress me. Ongoing uncertainty about my prostate/bladder and not moving past the problem is a frustration. Realising that some of the good work we have been doing at the Church will in all probability come to an end makes me feel sad and a little guilty for planing to retire. There are also the accumulated stresses of frequent things happening in the last few months, even good things along with the bad.  (A son's wedding in January, a new baby in February, coping with a catheter, visitors, an operation and recovery period, followed by two further days in hospital, funerals and the car accident. etc.) I just notice that every day I sense a level of stress. I sometimes lie awake at night wondering how I am going to work my way through things and even feel a mild panic attack when I think of some problem I have not dealt to. 
Celebrations....   Today is our grand daughter Edith's first Birthday. My wife has travelled up to Auckland to celebrate with the family there. Tonight I talked via skype. The wee girl is growing and changing by the day. We of course celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary and mother's day. It is interesting that I keep hearing positive things about our ministry and church. People say, "Everyone knows that is the church that is open to the community!" "Oh that's the community minded church isn't it - it does such good work!" "You have put that Church on the map!" One of our guys was visiting a rest home and when a lady found out what church he attended she raved on about "David Brown" and "his generosity, and the great work he does through that Church." I don't think they know that it is not as much as they think. Neither do they know that this church is really quite fragile. But it is good to know there is a positive impact. My wife gets impatient. "If everyone who raves on about the wonderful work we do, came and joined us in that work it would be much easier!" 

A good question for every day.