Mistakes and Lessons Learned

Sometimes I feel like things are my fault even though a mistake was due to miscommunication or lack of someone else following up on something. Here's what happened: A few weeks ago, I spoke to a man on the phone about his wife's upcoming surgery, and he told me that it had been postponed to July 8th. I (think) I told him that he should call back and let us know when/where it was so that I or someone else could follow up on it. The next thing you know, he's calling the church earlier this week and was upset that no one had come to see his wife in the hospital. The head pastor had been out of town, and I had been here of course, but had no reminder or record that she had been in the hospital that day. When he called and was upset was the only time I had been reminded that she was having surgery that day. Now I don't know who is at fault here- it could be totally mine for not paying more close attention to the date or remembering that his wife was having surgery, it could have been his fault for not following up with the church in any way, or both of our faults. I don't know. But the bottom line is that I feel bad. These people were candidates for new membership, and now they are considering not joining after all. And I feel like it's because of me. I feel like I let them down, and I let the head pastor down. I feel like I should have made sure to write it down on my calendar and highlight it or at least make a note to call him back. It just slipped through the cracks honestly. There's really no excuse for it. Of course, I'm trying not to beat myself up about this, but I really do feel terrible. It's a lesson learned I guess, and I'll have to take it for what it is. You can't please everyone all the time, and pastors can't read minds.

On another note, the Department of Motor Vehicles is perhaps one of the most frustrating places ever. Everytime I go there to do something, I don't have the correct information, or I have to turn around and go back to get something that I don't have. Corey and I got really frustrated the other week when we went to get our driver's licenses because we were told to bring a piece of mail with our address on it to prove we are IN residents. We both brought our document from the GOVERNMENT postal service saying that we had changed our address- and they wouldn't accept it! We had to go back home and bring them a bank statement or something else with the address. You'd think that a government document with our address on it would have been enough- but NO! Then today I went to try to register my car here, and I apparently don't have the real title to my car in my possession. I could possibly be screwed on that one. Who knows. But I've probably wasted more gas just trying to get stuff done at that ridiculous place.

AND...I am SO tired of the Residents in Ministry program being so disorganized.  I just got this invitation TODAY telling me that there is an orientation for new pastors being held on August 16th- the weekend of our wedding.  This is after I found out that I have to miss the 2nd retreat in September because Corey and I will be on our Alaskan cruise honeymoon.  I asked someone for a calendar so I wouldn't miss anything else because they scheduled the first retreat during my seminary graduation, the 2nd one during my honeymoon, and now I have to miss the new pastor's orientation, so now I will be even more lost than anyone else.  I am so mad about this!  Are they going to kick me out of the program or something?  Who knows.  It's their fault for not giving us a calendar to let us know any of these dates.  This is the first I've heard of any of these things.  So much for structure and organization.  We're Methodists for crying out loud!

I'm frustrated, can you tell?