Category Archives: Jared

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A Divine Call

Trinity Lutheran, Gillette, WyomingFor the last 6 years, I have served as Assistant Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Gillette, Wyoming. In April, the Senior Pastor received and accepted a Call to another congregation within the District. From mid-April until now, we have been operating with a single pastor. During these last few months, we have looked at and evaluated our needs to see if we wanted to call a second pastor or remain a single-pastor congregation. On August 7, it was decided to be a single-pastor congregation. A special Voter’s Meeting was set up for August 21 to determine who the congregation wanted to extend that Call to.

On the evening of August 21, I received and accepted the Call to serve as Sole Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Gillette, Wyoming, where I have been serving the last 6 years. I am privileged to continue God’s work in this place and minister to His people that He has entrusted to me.

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More than a sprain–it’s a fracture

Yep, that’s what it is. I woke this morning around 6:30. Sleeping with this splint on is not exactly easy. It’s hard, heavy, and makes my leg hot. I was scheduled to have a preschool staff meeting at 10, but instead met a family at the funeral home to meet with the family of a member who passed away yesterday. Trying to move around with crutches is not the easiest thing in the world, I found. It’s sore on my arms, I get overly hot and I really want a glass of water. As I was at the funeral home, the walk-in clinic called and left me a voicemail. I returned their call to find out that my ankle or foot is indeed fractured. So that means I get to see orthopedics to resolve that. Best case is a boot. Worst case is surgery I’m sure, but I don’t think we’re there.

As an added bonus, this is what my foot looked like this morning.IMG_0145[1]

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Hopefully just a sprain

This morning when we had company, Chewie ran out the front door. I slipped on some shoes and went chasing after him. I got to where he was, just two houses down. He stopped to use the yard and I went up after him. I tripped or something and went down, spraining my ankle. I went to the hospital’s walk-in clinic this afternoon after going to the bedside of a dying member and it is sprained. Well, that’s the best case scenario. An x-ray was done and there appears to be a small bone shard floating around the ankle. It could have been been from birth, it could be old, or it could be new. The physician’s assistant is treating it conservatively and treating it as a possible fracture. It’s in a stint and I’m on crutches for several days. She’ll call me tomorrow and let me know if it’s just a sprain or a fracture.

This is what my leg looks like for now:IMG_0143[1]

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Blogging absence

I’ve been MIA from blogging the last couple of days. It all started Friday with a queasy feeling in my stomach. Saturday, it turned in into full-blown sick. I spent the day either sleeping or in another room of the house.

To make matters worse, I couldn’t make it to church yesterday. The most unfortunate part of that was I was due up to preach. I had to call the senior pastor Saturday afternoon and let him know my predicament.  He was understanding and wrote a sermon with about 18 hours of advanced notice. Talk about a great senior pastor (and a great friend!).

So, after a couple of days, I’m glad to say that I’m on the mend. I even ate some snack foods for the Superbowl last night.

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Queasy

I’ve had a queasy feeling in my stomach all day long. I didn’t eat much for lunch and I nursed a Diet 7-Up for several hours. To add to that, I had chills when I came home this afternoon.

Tonight, the 4th-6th graders of the church had a pre=Superbowl party. There was Wii, nachos, and a short devotion. I refrained from the nachos (even though they looked good). Instead, I just had another Diet 7-Up, an apple-cinnamon fruit bar and a couple of Oreos.

I still have the queasy stomach so doubtful there will be any food in my future, except maybe some toast.

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The Joys of Parenting: Sick Kids

It was bound to happen sooner or later. After 2 1/2 years, my oldest got his first round of antibiotics. He had an ear infection a week ago and was given some antibiotics. Sunday, my wife took him to the walk-in clinic because of a 102* temperature. It turns out he had/still had an ear infection and possibly strep throat. They gave him a prescription for augmentin. It said on the bottle to take with food. Unfortunately, he had only had milk and not much more than that. We found out why it says to take with food: without food in your stomach, it will make you throw up. He threw up a couple of times that afternoon.

Gwen took him to our pediatrician yesterday and she took him off of the augmentin (after a dose and a half) because it had less than productive results. That led us to last night, which was not a good night.

After we got him ready for bed (at most 20 minutes), he threw up in bed. This prompted a changing of the sheets. Not only did he have vomiting, he also had diarrhea. Because of this, his little bottom is blood red; so red, he doesn’t even want you to wipe it.  Around 3 this morning, he threw up again. By this point, we had run out of sheets and he had to sleep with us. During this time, there were more diapers that needed to be changed.

5:30 this morning and he woke up screaming/crying. After changing his diaper again, the only way to get him to settle down and go to sleep was for him to lay on me. This lasted until 8 or so, which meant I got little sleep. I made it into work close to 9:45. I think I was there for around 3 hours before my wife said she needed me to pick up some stuff for Wesley. That little trip cost close to $60!

If that wasn’t bad enough, Gwen said that Bryce was sounding pretty funny, especially when he coughed. She scheduled an appointment with the pediatrician again, this time for Bryce. It turns out that he has croup. 

So, to sum it all up, we have one kid with an ear infection and diarrhea (which hopefully is clearing up). Kid 2 has croup.

For Gwen and I, that means that we are fully exercising our vocation of parent, care giver, and all-around “make the boys feel better” people.

We can’t wait to see what fun lies in store for tonight!

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Anniversary woes

Yesterday was our 5-year anniversary.  It didn’t quite go according to plan.

We left the boys with some friends in order to have a date, something we haven’t done since we were back home this summer.  We went to see the movie, The Dilemma.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great.  I’d give it 2.5 stars.

Our dinner plans were going to be at Prime Rib.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have reservations and it was 6:30.  The wait time was about an hour.  Keeping the boys’ bedtime in mind, we didn’t think that would work.  We tried Boss Lodge.  Unfortunately, Friday night was seafood buffet night.  Not being a big seafood person, that was out.  We then went downtown to the Chophouse.  The wait time was only 20 minutes.

The Chophouse was very busy.  My guess, every place in Gillette was busy last night.  It took quite a while to get our soup and salad, chiefly because the kitchen was backed up.  My French onion soup was very good.  When our meal finally came out, it was also good.  By the time we were finished with our meal, it was almost 9:00.  If were just us, not a big deal.  But having a 2 1/2 year old who was an hour past bedtime, we felt in a rush.

Once we got home, Wesley read his bus book and he was out.  Bryce woke up in his carseat.  I picked him up and held him and he was out.

Overall, it was a good night, though dinner plans didn’t go as smooth as I had planned.  Note to self: always make a reservation on a Friday night.  Even reservations at McDonald’s might not be a bad idea in the future.