Still Feeling Fine
Until this evening Payton has had no pain at all. Tonight she began to have just a little bit of pain but advil took care of it. I can’t help but feel this sense of urgency and fear that the epidural was too short but we just have to trust God that He is in this and is working. She is resting comfortably now so maybe it was just a fleeting moment of pain.
Tim found out today that UPS wants to bring him on as a permanent employee beginning Jan. 2nd. For those of you who do not know, UPS does all of their hiring during the holiday season and everyone starts out as “seasonal temporary”. Once you work through the seasonal work they decide whether or not to ask you on to be a permanent employee. Although this is really tough on our family it is an answer to prayer because in 60 days we will be eligible for the health insurance. We have been nearly eaten alive with medical bills over the years and they continue to pile up. You put that with our extraordinarily large health insurance premiums and deductible ($6000 this year) and we just can’t afford it. We had to make drastic decisions. We had heard that UPS had health insurance benefits for their part-time employees but had no idea it was as good as what we will have. The Church of the Nazarene is basically set up now for pastors wives to work for their health benefits or for the pastor to be bi-vocational in order to get group health insurance. The young pastors can get individual health plans for themselves and/or their families but they will have to do something before they begin to age and develop significant health problems. I predict that the Church of the Nazarene will begin to lose many of it pastors because of this crisis. It will begin slowly but eventually the denomination will fade away. It is very sad! We have spoken to numerous district superintendents and generals about this problem and we are always told that there is a committee working on group coverage but that it just is not possible to get together. Our district sup. is very active on this matter and has worked on many committees to put together proposals for getting group coverage for Nazarene pastors. We were recently told that the generals are tired of hearing from him so he has been removed from all committees! I think that sends a message to us pastors that are in dire need that they just don’t care at all. We have sacrificed our lives for our denomination but it feels very one sided. Oh well, I’ll get off of my soap box now! Feel free to write a letter to the board of generals about this issue. I believe the only way anything will change is if the local churches begin to make noise about it. Maybe if enough local pastors have to take second jobs like we have, it will start to happen. Anyway, for now around here the second job is an answer to prayer!
