When good eggs go bad!!
First of all, to answer a couple of questions that were posed from my last post:
DCE is short for Director of Christian Education. He oversees the Board of Education, teaches bible study classes and one class of confirmation. He also works with the teenagers and organizes their activities. For that, he was making in excess of $80,000 a year, until the budget was cut.
When I was a kid growing up in that church we had larger numbers of young people than there are now and there were young couples who VOLUNTEERED to do those things. Then at one time we had a seminary student who was doing an internship, a vicar for a period of time and various volunteers throughout the years. Then this guy came along about 15 years ago, wormed his way in and has managed to decimate the budget over the years - along with other things of course.
It's extremely difficult to get anyone to volunteer at our church due to some past history of staff members. The office manager that up and quit was making $25,000 a year, working four days a week for six and a half hours a day along with a full benefit package. And she didn't know diddly about running a computer so she was virtually no help to our current minister who is very tech oriented and does most everything electronically. She was constantly crabbing about how overworked she was, which she wasn't, and also was totally inept at keeping confidential information confidential, which she should have been fired for. Members would volunteer to do things to help her out and then she would go and redo everything because it was never done good enough and then she would criticize. People finally got tired of all that and quit volunteering. When her hours were cut, she got mad and walked out making a statement that the church would never be able to operate without her. There's lots more about her I could go into, but it's not important anymore because she's gone. It was difficult to deal with her in any manner due to the fact that her husband was president of the council for 6 of the 7 years that she was employed in that position. And her son was an elder so that didn't help either.
So, on we go, figuring things out and making baby steps to the positive - hopefully.
So what are your plans for Easter? I don't have to cook this year!!! Since Lovely Daughter and Sven moved into a big house in town I've turned all the holidays over to them. I will, of course, bring some dishes and some goodies, but they're in charge of the main preparation and the cleanup. Should be fun as some of their neighbors are coming over.
She has the most interesting neighbors. It's a bunch of brothers - I think 5 or 6 - from way far northern Minnesota, up by the Canadian border. They're all in their 20s and 30s and grew up in a family of 17 children. They've been on TV on the Learning Channel and Discovery on "Kids by the Dozen" and have their own website. One of the older brothers owns the house and a construction company and as the younger boys get to be college age they cycle through the house, attend school and work for him. They are the nicest young men and so fun to visit with. They get started telling stories about growing up in a house with 17 kids and it's hilarious. Can you imagine sitting down to a meal with 19 people at the table? Or cooking for that many on a regular basis? I get tired just thinking about it. I've met their parents and they are wonderful people. Mom is slim and trim and looks so young I can't believe it. So that should be a fun day.
I went to town yesterday to run errands and when I came home Ole was on the lawnmower and had the entire yard (5 acres) cleaned up. It looks so nice and is really greening up. But you should have seen Ole when he came in. You couldn't tell what color he was (chuckle) from all the dust and dirt that had blown up on him. So this afternoon I'm hoping to get out and clean up some of my flowerbeds as the little green things are popping up there also. But first I have to make some homemade buns, a key lime pie and a salad for tomorrow.
Guess I had better get busy, huh?
Have a Blessed Easter, everyone.
Love you all, Lena
DCE is short for Director of Christian Education. He oversees the Board of Education, teaches bible study classes and one class of confirmation. He also works with the teenagers and organizes their activities. For that, he was making in excess of $80,000 a year, until the budget was cut.
When I was a kid growing up in that church we had larger numbers of young people than there are now and there were young couples who VOLUNTEERED to do those things. Then at one time we had a seminary student who was doing an internship, a vicar for a period of time and various volunteers throughout the years. Then this guy came along about 15 years ago, wormed his way in and has managed to decimate the budget over the years - along with other things of course.
It's extremely difficult to get anyone to volunteer at our church due to some past history of staff members. The office manager that up and quit was making $25,000 a year, working four days a week for six and a half hours a day along with a full benefit package. And she didn't know diddly about running a computer so she was virtually no help to our current minister who is very tech oriented and does most everything electronically. She was constantly crabbing about how overworked she was, which she wasn't, and also was totally inept at keeping confidential information confidential, which she should have been fired for. Members would volunteer to do things to help her out and then she would go and redo everything because it was never done good enough and then she would criticize. People finally got tired of all that and quit volunteering. When her hours were cut, she got mad and walked out making a statement that the church would never be able to operate without her. There's lots more about her I could go into, but it's not important anymore because she's gone. It was difficult to deal with her in any manner due to the fact that her husband was president of the council for 6 of the 7 years that she was employed in that position. And her son was an elder so that didn't help either.
So, on we go, figuring things out and making baby steps to the positive - hopefully.
So what are your plans for Easter? I don't have to cook this year!!! Since Lovely Daughter and Sven moved into a big house in town I've turned all the holidays over to them. I will, of course, bring some dishes and some goodies, but they're in charge of the main preparation and the cleanup. Should be fun as some of their neighbors are coming over.
She has the most interesting neighbors. It's a bunch of brothers - I think 5 or 6 - from way far northern Minnesota, up by the Canadian border. They're all in their 20s and 30s and grew up in a family of 17 children. They've been on TV on the Learning Channel and Discovery on "Kids by the Dozen" and have their own website. One of the older brothers owns the house and a construction company and as the younger boys get to be college age they cycle through the house, attend school and work for him. They are the nicest young men and so fun to visit with. They get started telling stories about growing up in a house with 17 kids and it's hilarious. Can you imagine sitting down to a meal with 19 people at the table? Or cooking for that many on a regular basis? I get tired just thinking about it. I've met their parents and they are wonderful people. Mom is slim and trim and looks so young I can't believe it. So that should be a fun day.
I went to town yesterday to run errands and when I came home Ole was on the lawnmower and had the entire yard (5 acres) cleaned up. It looks so nice and is really greening up. But you should have seen Ole when he came in. You couldn't tell what color he was (chuckle) from all the dust and dirt that had blown up on him. So this afternoon I'm hoping to get out and clean up some of my flowerbeds as the little green things are popping up there also. But first I have to make some homemade buns, a key lime pie and a salad for tomorrow.
Guess I had better get busy, huh?
Have a Blessed Easter, everyone.
Love you all, Lena
Hope your Easter was as lovely as it sounded it would be.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a great Easter. And, since eyes have been opened at church, things may begin to slowly turn around and you will have the home church you once had.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work. BTW, can Ole come work in my yard? I'm not too far from you, just in NE Arkansas.