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What’s an anniversary, anyway??

4 Jun

June 4.  A day that will live in infamy … heh heh heh.  It was fifteen years ago TODAY that my career at Ebenezer Baptist Church began.  I walked into that church office for the first time as a full-time staff minister.

It had been a long road.  In 1991, I surrendered to ministry and walked away from a promising career in IT.  (Funny how God’s sense of humor has kept me in it, huh??)  I returned to college and to seminary and it had been almost FOUR YEARS since I’d had a full-time job.  In seminary, I worked three part-time jobs as well as taking a full class load every term.  It’s not that I’d been a slacker, just finishing the goal God put before me.

The road at Ebenezer has been a tough one.  I started as the Minister of Youth and Recreation.  Many know what happened after that … The pastor that called me here left us in 1999.  I was asked to be the interim pastor.  18 months later, Ebenezer asked me to be the full-time pastor.  (Many of my colleagues in youth ministry accused me of LEAVING the ministry when I did that!  And that is a joke!!!)

It’s funny … 15 years seems like a wisp of time.  Krissy went from 4k to being a sophomore at Clemson.  Drew went from being a MONTH old to now a sophomore at West Florence.  Many changes have happened in my family, in my church family, in our community, and in our world.  And we plug along, striving towards the goal God has given us!

Where has David been??

29 May

Ok, I am ready to fess up. One or two of you have noticed that I have barely posted a Twitter update this week, and this is my FIRST blog entry of the week. As my week draws to a close, I guess I can now admit that I am on vacation!!

The first couple of days of this week were no vacation, even though I am not in Florence. Situations kept popping up that kept me on my cell phone for HOURS. I can’t wait to see my bill!! However, I’ve now been in the sand and sun enough to sport a sunburn. On my walk a couple of days ago I ran into some friends from Greenville that I probably haven’t seen in 19 years. Yes, this has been another interesting week.

I will confess I’ve checked my email frequently this week. Sometimes I wonder if I should completely turn my cell off for the week and just check email. That might be a plan for next time!!

I love it when a plan comes together …

14 May

Yes, I saw Liam Neeson utter that famous phrase as Hannibal Smith on the A-Team preview and now I must see it!!  But that is NOT what this entry is about …

In the last couple of weeks I’ve posted several negatives about Cale Yarborough Honda.  Don’t know if I will EVER do business with them again.  HOWEVER, I feel the need to post a POSITIVE about another local business:

Don’t you LOVE it when you go to a local business and they do EXACTLY what they say they will do??  And they tell you the TRUTH!   And everything fits what you expected TO A TEE!!  (And it didn’t even cost as much as you thought it would??)

That is exactly what I get every time I deal with Norton Car Stereo in Florence.  And, if there is a problem, they fix it …  And many times they can figure things out that CAR DEALERS don’t even understand, with things OTHER than stereo issues.

Now I will admit that Jimmy and Connie are good friends of mine.  But I’ve also watched them deal with OTHERS and seen the same results.  And, when a business works hard to keep their customers happy, their customers always want to COME BACK.

And sometimes they even blog about it!!!!

Now I KNOW I’m getting old …

12 May

I KNOW I’m getting old because I am ecstatic right now!!  I SLEPT ALL NIGHT!  IN MY OWN BED!!

Bring out the guys with the white coats.

I am very disappointed that my doctor made no more of an effort to diagnose or treat my mysterious foot problem.  I pretty much told him what I’d been doing and had to ask when I could work out again, and then I had to drag the answers out of him.  It was really strange …

BUT … Last night, as if I felt something literally “let go” of my foot, it suddenly loosened up.  And I stood up.  And it felt about 75% better.  I took my Motrin and went to bed and it never throbbed, and for the first time in a LOOOONG time, I slept all night.  With no pain.  My foot is still a little swollen, but I can definitely go without crutches today.  I have to go back for a checkup tomorrow anyway, so the doctor plans to check my foot out again then.

But the fact that I’m celebrating sleep, and sleeping in my bed, is a sure sign that I am getting old.  Well, it means I am at least over 40!!

Guess I’m just gettin old …

10 May

Yesterday was Mother’s Day.  One of the awesome traditions at Ebenezer is that we do not have ANY evening activities on Mother’s Day, in hopes that people will spend time with their families.  (Of course, when your family is THREE hours away, it doesn’t work out so well for you)

We had a great day ahead of us yesterday when I noticed a little soreness in my left foot.  Just below the ankle.  No big deal, just a little sore.  Then “just a little sore” turned into THROBBING BEYOND BELIEF.  When I went to bed last night, it seemed okay.  But with every minute, the throb level increased TENFOLD.  So I spent last night on my recliner.  No sleep.  A couple of times of really intense pain.  I assured myself I would not pass go, but would go DIRECTLY to the doctor Monday morning.  And for all the good it did, that is exactly what I did.

I miss Dr. Dancy.  Sometimes I think I am one of the few in Florence that does, but I REALLY missed him today.  No offense intended.  But I had to bring a new doctor up to speed on my whitecoat hypertension, and he was more obsessed with that than with my throbbing foot.  Bottom line:  Xrays looked negative, so we have NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON WITH MY FOOT.  It does seem to be getting better but I am still on crutches tonight.  And I have to go back for my scheduled six-month checkup on Thursday … Apparently spending two and  a half hours there today could not replace the recheck this week.  (CHA CHING, CHA CHING)

So WHY DID MY FOOT FREAK OUT??  No one seems to know.  I guess I’m just getting old …

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