Hi all! Whew, what a Sunday!
My church has agreed to provide monthly chaplaincy services to a local nursing home. This is in addition to my fulltime work as a chaplain at a different facility, which is overseen directly by my bishop as a separate self-contained congregational unit. So technically I'm the pastor of the nursing home's "church", and also a member of another congregation individually with participation on the pulpit ministry team there also.
Methodist circuit riding -- it didn't die out in the 1700s after all!
The funny thing is that I walked right into the new place, and felt perfectly at home. The same authority structure, the same challenges and tasks to fulfill, some of the residents had personalities which matched exactly to "my" parishioners, etc. They are so grateful to have one Sunday service per month, while my own parishioners have learned to take it for granted that I'll be there three days a week, visit them in the hospital, etc. But then again, I'm not there to be appreciated, I'm there to serve God's people.
I have chapel envy, too. This facility has a dedicated chapel which is quite lovely, with icons, fake stained glass, an altar table with gorgeous paraments, and lots of other nice stuff. My "chapel" is a dining room, and on Sundays I have to move all the furniture after breakfast and have it back together before lunch. I carry my communion supplies in a Rubbermaid satchel from home. My office is a closet which I share with three other people! But as the activities director at the new place said, they'd gladly trade the chapel for a chaplain.
Anyways, between my busy Sunday and the fact that we had a Youth Group movie night this weekend (with me providing significant mileage in transportation to and from the event), I am just about exhausted.
I really noticed this weekend how activity affects my hunger levels. I'm not one of those people who is less hungry after they've been moving around for awhile. I have been ravenous since Movie Night on Friday (where I successfully avoided pizza and fresh-baked cookies made in the church's toaster oven, in favor of my planned meal at home), and my meals haven't been putting a dent in the hunger levels at all. I'm hesitant about starting to use activity points, because I never really get up to the aerobic level except when moving the dining hall furniture and wheeling patients into the church service and back to their rooms. But I can definitely see that exercise really does matter. Last week, when I lost 6 pounds, I had been shoveling snow day after day, plus my regular work. Oddly enough, I didn't get overly hungry then, as I did this weekend. Being a chaplain = shoveling two feet of snow? Seems unlikely. But then again, perhaps I'm selling myself short.
Oh yay, more snow is predicted for tomorrow. So I'm on my way to markt for a bread/milk/produce run, and downtown for some hospital visitation. It's really interesting to recognize that now I get worried if I'm running out of bananas when snow is predicted (it used to be chocolate candy). Trying to decide whether to stop in to W/I today, since Wednesday is supposed to be really tough weather-wise. Either way, it's all good. Onward and downward!