Balancing Ministry N' Work

I am not sure how I feel about this, we have a date for my upcoming surgery. May 26, 2010 at 7:00am EST I will be going under as the Surgery team prepares to remove my Acoustic Neuroma. In some ways this is great news! I now know how much time I have before the surgery and can set goals to finish things at work, make sure I wrap up any sermon series at NLC, and plan on extra time with the family. Family flying/driving in to be with my family and I, can now begin to make their travel arrangements. On the other hand, having a surgery date makes this now more real than it has been up to this point. I am not looking forward to being in the hospital or the first week or two of recovery. They tend to make me a little uneasy now and again. Still so far so good! God has been answering my prayers about minimizing side effects. Headaches are minor, no dizziness, or facial numbness. Last week I was feeling really fatigued. I prayed for God to give me strength so that I can continue to serve Him l...

Got a call today that I was not expecting. It was a recruiter out of Chicago calling me about a position in Northern California. I used to live in CA, so I would be open to the idea. The position he called me about was a step up from what I am doing now, where most of my direct reports would be supervisors or managers. It was a Divisional Supply Chain Manager position. Could be very interesting. At this time though, as exciting as the opportunity maybe, moving is not in the cards for me. I have just become pastor of New Life and am enjoying this new opportunity, and feel this is where God wants me to be. Not to mention that with my medical issues right now, this would not be the best time to pursue another job. While I am not going to pursue the job, I am still tickled that I got the call! Blessings, Robert

It is official! With the calling of God on my life, the calling of New Life Chapel to be their Pastor, and the approval of the ordination council yesterday I am officially a Reverend. As one of the members of councel said, that and $1.50 will buy me a cup of coffee. :) After church today, the local DOM and several of the local Pastors who were on the council came to New Life for an ordination ceremony. It was very nice and I felt blessed and humbled by the experience. I am very thankful to all involved and that God has chosen me as one of His servents. Praise God for all that He has done, is doing, and will do! In Christ's name, Amen! Blessings, Rev. Robert

Here I am waiting to hear from the hospital. With so much going on in my life, I just wish I knew what I could schedule. I am working on a sermon series, trying to decide if I am going to graduation, plus a bunch of stuff at work. Without knowing when my surgery is going to be scheduled it is hard to make plans. It is not that I am eager to go under the knife, believe me. I just wish I knew when. Tick Tock Tick Tock... just love playing the waiting game... UGH! Hope everyone is having a great week! May God Bless you!

Hey All, It is time to give everyone an update on how things are progressing. Friday March 12th Alexis and I drove to Ann Arbor to the University of Michigan Hospital. First I had another hearing test, third test in four weeks. Getting kinda good at these tests, to bad I can't pass one. :) We got there about 15 minutes early and I was taken back for the hearing test almost immediately. The hearing tests lasted about 15-20 minutes. The results of these came as no shock, pretty much the same as the others. I have a moderate to severe hearing loss in my left ear and a very minor loss in my right ear. Since we got there early and the hearing tests only lasted 15-20 minutes, we had roughly 45 minutes before the appointment with the surgeon. 5 Minutes later they called me back, I was shocked. Spent about 10 minutes with the surgeons assistant going over the basics, checking vitals etc... After about a 5 minute wait the surgeon joined us. The surgeon spent a good hour with us going over e...

Just wanted to let you know that I received my final grade last night. I got an A in my last class of the MBA program. This gave me a cumalative GPA of 3.95 and I will graduate with Suma Cum Laude Honors. Pretty Cool! I received Magna Cum Laude Honors with my undergrad, so I really did not expect being able to go to the next level on a masters program. God is Good! Robert

Ok, not much has been happening the last couple of weeks. We are scheduled to see the surgeon on Friday. What is only a two week wait, has seemed like an eternity. It is hard to schedule business trips, family activities, and Easter service at church. Looking foward to the appointment even if it is just to get to the next step. Now as we entered this week I have felt very tired. Monday I was dragging, thought it was just due to us staying up late watching a movie. Well Tuesday I found out it was something different. I woke up with a pretty decent fever, went to work for an hour to reschedule meetings. That is the one problem with leaving the laptop at work, I could not do it from home. Came home and slept most of the next 24 hours. Went to the Dr Tuesday evening and found out I have dual ear infections, major sinus infection, and my throat is very red. As the Dr put it, I have an acute flare up of my chronic sinusitus. UGH... as if I did not have enough going on. Could not get out of b...

It has been roughly three years in the making, but it is now completed. As of about 10 minutes ago I submitted my final exam, in my final class for my MBA. I do not know my grade yet, but my GPA will be somewhere between a 3.8 and 3.95 on a 4.0 point scale. Needless to say i wll graduate with Honors. Now I need to wait to see if it will be Suma or Magna Cum Laude Honors. These last three years have seen a lot of change while I worked on this degree. I have served as a youth leader at a church in California, moved my family to Michigan, took on a job promotion, and in January began serving as the Senior Pastor of a local church. Not to mention Thomas being in the hospital for 9 days with meningities, Alexis have knee surgery, and now my new medical journey. It has been a good adventure, but I am glad to be done. Now I have more time for my family and ministry. I will try to keep the amount of time I work in check. Now I need to figure out the timing of my medical needs and the graduatio...

Hey All, This week is a week of waiting. Last week we found out that I have Acostic Neuroma (AN). This is a tumor growing between the nerves that control hearing, facial function, and balance. For me this is on the left side of the head and has significantly impacted my hearing in my left ear. I do have some very mild symptoms in addition to the hearing loss, but nothing that would have caused me to see the Dr. on their own. For most people this is found when the tumor is 2-4MM, mine is 23 MMs in size. Not uncommon, just that more than 50% of people diagnosed with AN have smaller tumors. For the past week Alexis and I have been doing a LOT of research. Some of it is scary, but some of it is reasuring. Mostly we know that God is in control no matter what. Their are 5 treatment options available for AN. 3 are micro-surgery of the brain and 2 are different radiation programs. Each option has its own set of risks and benefits. Each surgery has side effects from facial paralysis, total loss...