There are many rewards to his job and many thankless tasks, too, but the real gems (for me, at least) come from the unexpected and somewhat bizarre things he is sometimes asked to do:
- Church maintenance things like unclog a toilet, change light bulbs, hang pictures and change paraments.
- Talk to telemarketers on the church phone line, then usually turn said telemarketers down because the church budget is so tight; same with traveling gospel groups that want to perform (for money) during Sunday worship.
- Have an hour long conversation with the disturbed (and disturbing) Indian lady who wants someone to remove the demons from her son because the demons are physically keeping them apart.
- Find a hotel room for someone from out of town who was just released from the hospital - and then realize you spoke to that same person six months ago, who was just passing through town then, and had just gotten released from the hospital and needed a hotel room for a couple of nights. Hmmmm.....
- Remove a used condom from where it had been tied around the church doorknob, and......my new favorite:
- Stop by the Dollar Store on your way to teach Confirmation to purchase enemas for an elderly parishioner because they are in too much pain to leave the house, then stop by to deliver said items.
.JPG)
2 comments:
I never realized that our profession and your husband's profession are so similar in that we are constantly confronted with strange requests...
Yeah, although I haven't yet been asked anything about an enema! And as he went on to teach confirmation, I realized he and I are in the right professions: he says he couldn't handle all the rude folks on the plane and I KNOW I couldn't handle 10-15 7th and 8th graders not listening and all talking at once. I sat in his office with the door closed last night playing on the computer and had to exercise quite a bit of restraint to not kill them. He, on the other hand, handled it with patience, love and even humor. God love him, and I do, too.
Post a Comment