Ch-ch-ch-changes!

A lot has happened since I last updated on here. Let’s see…

New Car

At the end of September, I had planned on going to the Leadership Institute at Church of the Resurrection in the Kansas City area. I got my ticket, reserved a hotel room and headed west.

It was an easy, but boring, drive. I actually had a meeting that day on Zoom, so I had my ear bud in and Zoom going on my phone for part of it. Overall, though, it wasn’t too bad. Good weather, light traffic. A nice day for a drive.

I stopped for gas at one point, and noticed a weird sound coming from my car, but I didn’t think too much of it since it didn’t make the noise when I started my car again. However, once I got back on the highway, my car started lurching.

I pulled off at the next exit and parked at a gas station. Then, my car wouldn’t start. After a very helpful person at the gas station gave way more of his time than he need to, it was determined that I probably needed a new serpentine belt, alternator and/or battery. It was going to set me back a few hundred dollars (and a day on my trip), but what needs to be done needs to be done.

In order to get to my jumper cables to get the car started and to a mechanic, I tried to open the sliding door on the driver’s side of the car. And it came off the railing. I was done. I ended up calling my wife, who got the kids in the car as soon as they got home from school, and started the 6 hour drive to where I was stranded. My next call was to a junkyard, to whom I sold my busted up van for $200. And then, I sat, with all the stuff that was in my van, for the next 6 hours, as the winds blew and the temperature hovered around 60. It was… unpleasant.

Katie and the kids finally arrived, and we immediately turned around to head home. At that point, I had canceled my hotel and just wrote the whole thing off as a really, really bad day. Outside of St. Louis, our son threw up in the car. We were done. A couple hours later, right around midnight, we stopped at a hotel a couple hours from home.

For a little while, we borrowed Katie’s brother’s car. A Jeep Patriot. Nice car – just a little small since I got so used to driving a minivan. We got a new car just before Thanksgiving. It’s a 2018 spaceship. There’s all kinds of buttons and dials. Free XM Radio for the first three months. I’ll see if that’s enough to convince me to subscribe once more. I do enjoy it. The kids each have their own screen. They can’t watch separate things, but that’s okay. It’s more than what I had as a kid!

The Phone Call

The next week, I was working on some stuff in my office and realized I need to run home to get something before a scheduled meeting. As I was home, I got a phone call from my Superintendent. Now, as a United Methodist pastor, one thing we try to avoid is phone calls from our Superintendents. However, I was the registrar for the District Committee on Ministry, so I didn’t think much about it. I was also one of the only elders in my county, so I was also used to my Superintendent asking me for a favor for something in the area. No biggie. So, I answered it. Then he asked if I was sitting down.

It was THE call. The one we get every few years telling us that we were getting reappointed. I was in shock. I had hoped to be in Vincennes for several more years. And, it was October, appointments aren’t made until the Spring. Not this time. I was to head north to Kokomo, Indiana.

I had never really been to Kokomo before. I had a meeting at a church there about 12 years ago, stayed overnight at a Motel 6, and ate dinner at Red Lobster, but that was my experience with Kokomo. Oh, and I drove around it as I was headed to some place further north a couple years ago. But, that was it.

I had the meeting with the Leadership Team. We saw what was to be our new house. And we explored a tiny bit before heading back to Vincennes. Our life was about to have a major change… and right before Christmas.

We Moved

On December 22nd, we unloaded at the new house.

The weeks leading up to the move were incredibly stressful. Between illnesses, sadness at leaving our beloved home, and just too much to do with not enough time, we barely got everything ready for the move. Thanks to some amazing friends, the majority of our stuff was packed before the moving truck arrived. Thanks to my sister-in-law, niece and nephew, the rest of it got packed up as they were loading.

We are still in a state of transition. While we are sad about leaving our friends and congregation in Vincennes, we are excited about new opportunities and new things to explore in Kokomo.

It’s a weird thing, being a United Methodist pastor. One phone call can completely change your life. All your plans and thoughts of the future can change with one phone call. We know this going in, but this is the first time we had a lot of community friends in addition to our friends at the church. It was the first time we moved with kids in school, and mid-year at that.

In a few days, our kids will be introduced to their new school and new friends. I’ll be slowly moving into my new office, and we’ll continue putting together our new home. Katie’s office is close enough that she doesn’t have to do overnight trips any more. We are closer to family, so I’m sure we’ll be getting together more often. And I think we’ll slowly integrate ourselves into this new community and come to love it as well.

We don’t forget about what was, but we do look ahead to what is to come. Perhaps there’s something to learn in all of this. Time and further reflection will guide us along the way.

But, for now, we embrace the changes we face.