Goodbyes Are Hard

July is gone and we are staring a new school year in the face. What happened to the summer?

AN UPDATE ON MOM. Mom is having a rough time. Last Saturday morning she called asking if I could take her to the ER. Her back was giving her a considerable amount of pain. To make a long story short we discovered that she has a compression fracture in her lower back to add to her list of ailments. There’s nothing to do for that but take it easy and stay on pain medication. She’s doing that and has people helping her around the clock. Some days are good days, others aren’t. Overall she’s doing pretty well, but she’s in for a long recovery.

COUSINS AND COLLEGES. My family has done a lot of traveling lately. They were actually driving to Georgia a week ago Wednesday (the 22nd) for some cousin time when I was writing the last edition. They stayed there until Sunday. They enjoyed the trip, though Vicki had some pretty severe muscle spasms in her back that laid her out the first couple of days. I do know they ventured out to see the Minions movie that’s out now.

Vicki and Jenna hit the road again this Wednesday (the 29th) for college visits. They headed west to Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, where they had a tour scheduled for that afternoon. They stopped in Camden on the way there. It was the first time anyone from our family has been back there since Pauline passed away. After the tour at Union, they headed to Birmingham, Alabama, where they had a tour of Samford University scheduled for Thursday morning. When that was over they headed home, stopping in Nashville for a little shopping.

Jenna was impressed with both universities. I think it would be premature to say more at this point as she still has a couple more schools she wants to visit. She is also reevaluating her desire to go into nursing after her internship experience this summer. She simply feels she doesn’t have the passion she needs to have to go into that field.

ENDING A CHAPTER. Monday will be the start of new employment adventures for me and Vicki, though I think it all feels very surreal for both of us. Vicki has spent a lot of time at church (when she’s been home) cleaning out her office and closets she has used for the children’s ministry over the years to leave things in good shape for her successor. This is something she usually does after VBS anyway, but leaving has made her take a deeper look at things.

I’ve been doing a lot of the same things at my job with Robertson County: cleaning my office, documenting how I do things that only I do, making sure people can log in to systems I have maintained, etc. I’ve also been saying goodbye to a lot of folks. It hasn’t been easy, but the nice thing has been the affirmation I have received. I know I’m leaving a lot of valued friends behind.

My supervisor treated our department to lunch at a local restaurant in Springfield Wednesday. We’ve had our share of people come and go in our little group in my time there. It was odd looking around the table at the friends I’ve grown close to knowing that I am the one who is changing the group this time. They sent me away with a drill press for my shop and a plaque that reads:

In Appreciation
All of us at the Technology Department
wish to express out gratitude for sharing your
experience, knowledge, gifts, and friendship with us.
We appreciate your humble and dedicated service
to the students, parents, and staff of
Robertson County Schools.
Joe Swann
21 Years of Service
July 29, 2015

As much as I care about my former coworkers the relationships will stop growing simply because we won’t be seeing each other every day. Goodbyes are hard.

Joe

Summers Do Fly

Somewhere I have a Peanuts comic book titled “Summers Fly, Winters Walk.” There’s a lot of truth to that. This summer sure is flying by.

THE SEARCH IS OVER! We have a new pastor. Dr. Thomas “TJ” Francis will begin his pastorate with our church on August 2. He and his wife, Jamie, and their seven (yes, I said 7) children will be moving here as soon as they can.

For those of you not familiar with the way a Southern Baptist church does things you have to understand that ultimately the local church is autonomous. We are members of a local association of churches, a state convention, as well as the Southern Baptist Convention, but this is a cooperative relationship and ultimately those bodies have no say in how our church operates. To that end it becomes our responsibility to hire our own ministry staff. Last year we formed a pastor search team of five people who have prayerfully and diligently reviewed candidates and brought the man they felt led was the best fit for our church. We had a meet and greet dinner Saturday night and heard him preach Sunday morning. This was followed by a vote that was nearly unanimous.

EVEREST. Once again is has been Vacation Bible School time at Mt. Carmel. Our theme this year was “Everest: Conquering Challenges with God’s Mighty Power.” Vicki didn’t know an exact average attendance when I asked her, but said we ran between 130 and 145 (kids and adults) which was a little down from last year. We certainly didn’t lack for energy.

It’s been odd watching this VBS go by knowing it is Vicki’s last one as Children’s Minister. We will volunteer in the future, but her role will be a lot smaller and our family life won’t revolve around it for three weeks as it has for the last several summers. Since VBS Vicki has been working to clean out her office and leave things in good shape for her replacement. When the boys realized that Vicki will no longer have an office at church they lamented the fact that they will no longer have a place to hang out when they aren’t in Sunday School or a worship service.

EYE PROBLEMS. One thing that was incredibly bad timing for Vicki was a case of preseptal cellulitis in her right eye. It all started when she was brushing her teeth late Thursday night a week ago (the 9th). She had taken her contacts out and was not wearing her glasses which meant she had to hold the toothbrush and toothpaste within inches of her eyes to see to get the paste on the brush. In doing this some of the bristles flicked some toothpaste in her eye. She flushed out her eyes, but infection set in anyway. By Saturday her eye was swollen shut and she headed to the eye doctor. After a round of antibiotics and eye gel she got the okay to wear her contacts again last Thursday. We’re so thankful everything has turned out okay, but it sure was a bad week for this to happen.

WAKEUP CALL. Mom took a little tumble last Tuesday evening (the 14th). I had taken her to church for the first part of VBS and was dropping her off at home when it happened. She was at the back door and had turned to go to the kitchen when she lost her balance and fell face forward into the couch. I was out in the driveway and unaware of the fall until I hear her holler.

We’ve been back and forth to a clinic, the hospital, and the orthopedic surgeon over the last week. Ultimately she hurt her right shoulder in two ways: she’s torn her rotator cuff and she broke her collar bone near the joint with the breastbone. Given her age the only treatment is eight weeks with her arm in a sling. This has made us call in some help as she now needs some assistance throughout the day. Please keep her in your prayers as she deals with these challenges.

Joe

Big Changes

Our family is about to have some big changes. These are changes that will directly affect everyone except Jenna. These changes have been cooking for weeks and now it’s time to share.

I will start with Vicki since you already know she will be resigning from her position at church. Shortly after she had submitted her resignation Ralph Illges, a friend of ours from church who owns and operates Silver Spring Capital, approached Vicki about a part time position at his office. Ralph’s business is a financial planning and investment service in Springfield. He had been considering the idea of some extra help in his office for some time. When he heard Vicki was resigning at church he felt she would be a good fit. (Vicki and Ralph’s wife, Mary Phil, also work together at church.) Vicki and Ralph met a couple of times about the job and she accepted. Vicki will begin her new employment on August 3.

I am the next big piece to the changes in our family. I have accepted a position with Davidson Academy (DA), a private school in Madison. There have been several kids from our church attend there over the years, most notably for the sake of this newsletter is that all four of Kenny and Lori’s kids are either alumni or still enrolled (that would be Wilson). Their oldest son, Mac, even returned a few years ago as a teacher and coach.

I was alerted to a position at DA near the end of May by a former colleague of mine who left the Technology Department two years ago for a job there. I will have some part time classroom responsibilities teaching a 7th grade Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) class as well as a couple of high school level Exploring Computer Science electives which will focus on HTML programming. My non-classroom responsibilities will include providing tech support to teachers and students for their iPads, renovating DA’s website, and helping to develop a way to archive and present documents and files for student portfolios.

I will confess this has been a heart wrenching decision and the entire month of June has proven to be a wild emotional roller coaster ride for me. I have worked for Robertson County Schools for 21 years. I was originally hired as a math and science teacher at Jo Byrns School (a K-12 school at that time), but have spent the last 18 years with the Technology Department. In that capacity, I have worked on computers and servers, trained teachers, and maintained the website just to mention a few things. If it has to do with technology in a school I’ve probably touched it. I may not know everything about it, but I’ve probably worked with it none the less.

My job changed dramatically in 2006 when I took over responsibilities for the student data and sate reporting. Over the last few years these responsibilities brought a lot of frustrations because they made me feel like I was playing a game I could not win. At this point I began praying about what to do about my job. For a long time I had felt God was saying, “Not yet.” Over the last few weeks--since Vicki resigned and without any warning--things just started falling into place. In that time I felt that God’s answer to my prayer had changed to: “The door of opportunity is now open for you, but only for a short time. I will be with you in whatever you decide to do.” So, I felt it was time to take the opportunity before me.

I will leave behind a school system full of valued friends. As I leave I am secure in the fact that I have done my very best to do the job right. I have received a lot of affirmation from the people I work with as the news of my departure has spread which means a lot to me.

One part of my decision to move to DA is the opportunity to move the boys there as well. Jenna will stay at East Robertson since she is a senior, but the boys will be coming with me. I have been assured that Ben will have the opportunity to try out for the basketball team this fall. If he lands a spot it will be odd at first to see him in a Bears jersey rather than an Indians jersey even though the school colors are the same. I know changing schools will be big for Ben and Nate, but they have been positive about it so far. At least I can say the three of us are in this together.

So there you have it. Big changes for our family. Vicki made the comment that we are the most consistent people we know, but this summer sure has blown that notion out of the water. The irony here is that Vicki will begin her new job just a block away from my old office on the very day I begin my new job at Davidson Academy.

Joe