This Weekend

What a week! I already wrote about Refresh!, which Janelle and I enjoyed the first part of the week. Tuesday I got back into town with less than 15 minutes to spare before a Trustees' Meeting. Wednesday I was up at 5:15 to head for Latrobe Hospital to be with a church family undergoing surgery. Then it was most of the day spent on my Sunday teaching, and another meeting after Family Factory. I spent most of Thursday morning in the office, and then took a couple hours with some pastor friends for fellowship and prayer. After that it was a home visit to another family recovering from surgery. I turned everything off about 4 p.m. to rest my body for the first time all week.

Then when Ben (14) walked Sparky (a little random-mix dog we rescued after its long-time owner died) last night, we all heard an unmistakable yelp that signalled something was wrong. Somehow, as Ben was bringing Sparky back inside, she tried to step up from the grass onto the driveway pad and apparently sprained the elbow on her left front leg. I was convinced it was broken from the way she was holding it, but this morning our vet, Doctor Contir of Mt. Pleasant Animal Hospital, said he thinks it's just sprained, or I think his word was "tweaked." She'll be on anti-inflammatories for a week and then we'll re-evaluate.

I am often concerned about how time spent pastoring other families takes away from my own. I'm trying to do something about that tonight and tomorrow. Tonight we're taking in a Pirates game with Will's (11) PAVCS (Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School) class. Following the game we're driving to Emlenton and our church's state campgrounds (they graciously allow pastors 7 nights free lodging every year) so we can be close to Cooperstown, where we will be attending a fund-raiser dinner hosted by Stacey, a friend of Ben's.

That will get me some time with my kids (maybe even win me some "parenting points"), but get me home kind of late Saturday night. Fortunately I've known for at least a couple weeks what I'll be teaching about Sunday morning. I'm borrowing my theme from Mark Batterson's book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. My teaching is entitled Becoming a Lion Chaser. It's gonna be a good day.