 |
| I have been getting rid of the dent. Bog will cover my failings. |
 |
| The little plastic bit I had to import from Japan. |
 |
| I have to get all these back into the van in the right place. |
 |
| Under the dashboard is a "fun" place to work. |
Car troubles..
We have three vehicles in our household. One, a Nissan Bluebird, has not been used since before we went overseas last year. In NZ we have to get a Warrant of Fitness every six months and register the car each year. This car, which I love driving, has run out of both registration and warrant of fitness. It is also the least economical vehicle so has tended to not be used. It has just sat and I want to get it on the road again. We have a little Toyota Starlet, my wife's car which is a good little car around town. It is economical and goes very well, but it is very small and you can't fit much in it. Then we have our 1996 Nissan van. The van did not cost much because it had a big dent in the front of it. It has already paid for itself, but I suspect the dent was causing problems for my windscreen wipers. In due course they broke down, a little plastic gadget disintegrated. It has been a massive mission getting under the dash board to attend to the problem. I decided too that while I had things in pieces I had to get this nasty dent out. It is taking for ever because I cannot get clear spaces of time to work on it. I miss my Bluebird and my van and can't wait to get both back on the road, but time slots to work on them are few and far between. It is frustrating.
Night Shelter disappointment.
The Dunedin Night Shelter Trust is trying to raise enough money to purchase the Night Shelter. We have a number of applications in for grants. But early this week we heard that one big one we had at the Lotteries Community Facilities Fund was rejected. I would think that I spent at least four days gathering together the information and preparing for that application. Three of us worked on the final application and we are confident it was good. They asked for more information, so we hoped it was on track for acceptance. But it was turned down! I know of other projects which received support, which I feel are not as worthy as ours. The rejection makes it very hard, if not impossible for us to reach the amount we need. We need about $260,000 more. So I am sad.
 |
| The Night Shelter buildings we want to purchase. |
I am not an entertainer!
I lead the service at the local Presbyterian Church this morning. It was billed as a "Community Service", people were sent letters inviting them to come and I was asked to lead it. There were about double the number of people in the congregation, many I did not know. I put a lot of effort into it and though I felt I was not on top of my game, I had very positive feedback. During the service I could see people smiling and enjoying the time. But I felt "used". Why do they like my services? I suspect it is good entertainment for them. I sometimes get asked to talk about the Night Shelter at various community groups. I get annoyed because often they just want an speaker to entertain them for twenty minutes and have no intention of helping to fund the Night Shelter. Well today I felt the same way. I was passionate about what I was communicating, but they were just enjoying it as entertainment! I felt used. I somehow felt cheapened. So this afternoon I have felt sad, telling my wife, "That's the last time I will preach there!" Jesus said something about not casting "your pearls before swine".
If these are my biggest problems, I guess I haven't got much to growl about really. But none the less I feel a tad burnt out and flat.
No comments:
Post a Comment