Tonight I am cooking dinner. Most of the meal will come from our garden. I think because we have had a good mixture of heat and moisture, and because with our big trees down our garden has had more sunshine, it has prospered. Broad beans are just finished, runner beans are coming to fruition, peas are developing, potatoes ready to harvest, big cabbages, silver beet, turnips, carrots, courgettes, tomatoes going red and apples on the trees. Plums have been preserved, or turned into jelly or chutney. The garden was planted late because we were dealing with felled trees, but it has produced in abundance. I love being at least a bit self-sufficient.
Employment agreement
I have been given a new employment agreement to sign for my chaplaincy work. There are somethings I am cautious about. But the other thing I get a tad annoyed about is the pay rate. Chaplaincy involves a lot of unknowns. Sometimes you do a way above your contracted hours. There is paper work to do. The average hourly rate for salary and wage earners in NZ is just over $32. The median rate is just over $25. I have six years tertiary education. I have 26 years experience in chaplaincy and 40+ years in Church and community ministry. This employment agreement is for an hourly rate of $24:00. By the time I pay for petrol to go into Dunedin to do my 5 hours a week it is not a money making activity ... but then I LOVE the people and feel alive when I am doing it? Will I stir, or will I stay quiet? Is it time to really retire?
Church frustrations.
We are fairly active in the local Presbyterian Church. It is an old traditional Church, run primarily by elderly women who do not like to get out of their comfort zones. There are about three of us "younger" couples - we try to do things that connect the Church with the community. Some time back at an AGM we presented an idea for flexible seating in the chapel. It was to go to the parish council to explore costs and report back. My wife sounded out quotes and possible funding streams and reported to the Parish Council. It has been conveniently "swept under the carpet" by the Parish Council, with no reporting back. It has been handled undemocratically. We began to tidy up stuff in the hall, because we want to run some parenting courses and other things later in the year. I got feedback that some of the rubbish had to come back to the hall. Essentially they want new people to be involved, but they do not want to change. They want to just keep doing things the way they always have done them. I had already written a letter expressing my frustration with the flexible seating situation. It was on my computer and I had been reviewing it, softening it and debating with myself about sending it. Should I stir, or shouldn't I? Then I had a phone call from a lovely lady who helped with the clean up. She had received a phone call from one of the leadership objecting to what we had done. (They had an extension ladder stored in this hall, which had borer riddled rungs that just broke if you stood on them.) That was when I decided to add to this letter and send it! My point was that if you want others to be involved, you need to allow change. You cannot just say, "Please get involved, but keep doing it our way." I have had an apologetic reply. But how much do you stir? And when do you just settle back and say "It's not my issue." and go elsewhere?
BUT "Jesus keeps calling" even in old age. Sometimes he annoys me!
