It’s been another adventurous week in my household. Monday of last week, my middle child suffered shortness of breath (she’s 20!) while driving, alone, home from a weekend at her college (she is living at home this summer and working). She pulled over and began hyperventilating. She finally reached me on the phone, and I got her mom on the phone (a nurse, ya know), and we were able to get the sheriff’s office in that remote area to begin looking for her. Two ambulances were dispatched, my daughter passed out while talking to the dispatcher, but they finally found her. She was taken to a hospital about 30 minutes from where she was. The LW and I of course had already left, headed in that direction. I turned a 3 hour drive into about 2 hrs and 15 minutes, and had a friend meet the ambulance so she wouldn’t be all alone.
The ER ran some tests and eventually discharged her with no diagnosis. On Tuesday, it happened again, but I was home with her and got her breathing managed before it got too bad. Wednesday she went for a battery of tests, and Thursday her shallow breathing got MUCH worse. She could hardly talk or eat or walk. She was admitted to the local hospital Thursday night.
After running a multitude of tests, involving both cardiac and pulmonary stuff, as well as testing her for every known virus and infection, she didn’t fare real well over the weekend. She began having sharp chest pains and her breathing did not improve.
She did finally turn a corner Sunday, and was discharged to bed rest last night. Her breathing is improved but chest pain continues. They have mostly eliminated any “bad” cardiac reasons for this, but don’t really know still what is causing the shortness of breath. One lab test was not good and will be repeated soon, for auto-immune related stuff. So we are very concerned and she is struggling with the pain.
Please pray for Mackenzie and all our family, when you have a chance.

A couple of posts ago I talked about the sweltering heat we are experiencing (I know, it’s nothing new). But it is worse now for the Knight family – our home A/C died yesterday!
It was 85 degrees INSIDE when I got home from work yesterday. I kick started the compressor a couple of times but it wouldn’t stay on. We slept with windows open – it was miserable. Our temp yesterday was 92 but the humdity was 96%! Heat index over 100.
The other problem with sleeping in the heat was the memories it triggered. For my LW especially, it was a vivid reminder of all those days post Katrina with no electricity, no cool air, no fans, etc. She was STRESSED to the max. Sleep was difficult. When you are so acclimated to the A/C, missing it is hard. I know I am whining, but …… YUK.
On top of that my daughter’s car died on her way home from work, making a horrible noise. It’s a 99 Civic with over 100K miles. I expected the worst. Had it towed to the local repair shop, but got good news, a pulley had broken that supported the fan belt, fairly minor repair. WHEW.
My LW and middle child have headed to the Gulf Shores area where family is gathering for the 4th. I am staying here tonight, praying the repair dude shows up and it’s not a major effort to fix it. With the holiday tomorrow, this is going to be expensive no matter what!
On top of all that, my smoke alarms started giving off false alarms all day today, finally found the “offender” and yanked that baby out of the ceiling. I think it was dust from the windows being open and the fans blowing, so will put it back once the AC is running.
Pray I don’t have to sleep on the floor of my office trailer, which, by the way, was ROCKING during today’s thunderstorm. Isn’t life an adventure???

For the multitude of fans of this site, you will notice the blog posted last week has been removed. Here’s why:
In that post I was critical of comments posted on a certain website regarding the upcoming House of Bishops meeting in New Orleans. My post was an emotional response to the tone of SOME of the comments that were quite critical and even mean-spirited to the HoB. The emotional response was directly related to my current situation – Rector of a church recovering from Katrina. I am thrilled the Bishops will spend some of their time together helping relief crews and attending worship services on the coast of Mississippi and in New Orleans. This is a good thing – we need them to see and hear what life is like for us, and take that message home with them so volunteers keep coming.
However…..in writing those thoughts I fell into a trap that I am often very critical of in others. I called the commenters “mean people”, and said the “mean people” live at that particular web site. Naturally, those folks took offense – and they should have.
You see, one of the biggest problems in this whole Anglican mess is the way people, on all sides of each “issue”, tend to glom people together. We stereotype, we make assumptions about theology and beliefs, we lump people into convenient groups, and we do all this WITHOUT taking the effort to get to KNOW people. I hate that, I hate it when people, and they did this in DROVES on “that site” after my blog post was reported on there, make assumptions about me, my beliefs, my theology, when they really have no clue about me.
And yet, I did the exact same thing. I labeled posters / commenters of “that site” into one convenient category of “mean people”. That was wrong, very wrong.
Damage was done. I am sorry for that. In blasting my post, the owner of “that site” made some assumptions of his own that are also unfounded. He has since apologized for his tone as well, but the assumptions he made drove much of the comments on my post. Somehow people took my words to mean I was not understanding, not recognizing, not being grateful for, Katrina relief efforts done by people of all sides of the issues in our church. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I didn’t ever say that, although I can sorta see how you could get that impression from my post. That’s the main reason I took it down – not just because I spoke wrongly, which I did in my own stereotyping, but also that anyone could misunderstand my point in that way would be terrible.
People have responded on the coast by the tens of thousands, pouring untold hours and millions of dollars into our recovery. I am eternally thankful for each and every one who has done so. As I said in my post, when you are doing this work you don’t first ask folks where they stand on any issues, and in that light this recovery effort has been one example of how our divided church can be united.
I am still glad the HoB will be joining us in that effort. And I have learned a valuable lesson. I hope those offended will accept my apology.
OH AND ONE MORE THING – one commenter on “that site” kept abusing me for the “pea green soup” background of my blog. LOL! He was right – it was awful. Hence, the new blue blog!

105 heat index in early June is NOT a good sign for things to come. Please pray the tropics behave like they did last year! PLEASE
We are moving along with our property closing, site master plan, and decisions about our first building. We should close within 30 days! WOOHOO! We will throw a PARTY! You are all invited.
Our site master plan looks good – click here for our church website and you can see some pics and info. We are holding discussion groups for the various components of the multi-purpose building – kitchen, nursery, worship, education, etc. Preliminary estimates have us about one million short to build it. I will be hitting the road for some more fund raising – so if you are in a church that wants to help and can help, let me know, I’d love to visit and share our story.
It looks like we will make Camp Coast Care our home until we are in the new building (probably late 2008). The new building there is much better, air conditioned baby! We are also taking over a classroom trailer that the school no longer needs, and will move our office trailer next to it this summer. So all our St Pats stuff will be in one area – that will be nice. The classroom trailer will serve as a Sunday morning nursery, meeting area, chapel space, etc. It will be real nice to have one thing to call ours! I hate spending money moving the office trailer, but it really needs to be done, plus we need the bathroom in it for the nursery (the trailers will be adjacent).
Church tonight, then speaking to the group from the Beatitudes Society that is spending a week on the Coast. Check them out – it’s an amazing group.

May has been another month with much travel in it. I spent the 1st 7 days at CREDO – which, for you clergy folks checking in, if you get an invite – GO.
CREDO is sponsored by the Church Pension Fund, with a focus on clergy wellness in 4 areas – health, spirituality, vocation, and finances. I found the time to be very well spent and found help in all 4 areas. You end up with a “CREDO plan”, with 3 objectives and perhaps a BHAG too. I have already made some positive changes in all 4 of the above areas and anticipate continuing to do so.
Last week I spent 3 days in Detroit at a Gathering of Leaders, a very exciting time. Retired Bishop Claude Payne of Texas had the vision for this group, and along with my Bishop, Duncan Gray, and others, put together these semi-annual meetings of folks who are fired up about mission. All attendees need to have at least 15 years of ministry left before retirement. It was a thrill to be with a group of Priests who are focused on the mission of the Gospel, and not over anxious or overly redirected to dealing with the “issues” of the day. Make the main thing the main thing, folks. The networking part is the real vital part of GoL, and I look forward to continuing in this group.
I spent one day back home, then drove to Atlanta for a family thing, back the next day for church. Our architects presented the final master site plan to us on Sunday, and it looks awesome. I need to find another million bucks somewhere, so pray for us, if you don’t mind. We hope to close on the property soon!
Next week – another trip, but a fun one as I will accompany my wife for HER job to NYC. We have built in several fun days, a mini vacation for the two of us. Can’t wait!