Update on Pastor Clement

This to my Multiply blog friends. Just got confirmation that my pastor came through the heart bypass and all seems to have gone well. Thank you all for your prayers. Continue to pray for a speedy recovery.

The lady I called to check on him said that had he not been such a good shepherd they may not have discovered this in time. He went to the ER after church on Sunday night to see if they would give him antibiotics for a cold he'd been battling for four months so that he could officiate at the funeral of a member of the church on Monday. They found a problem and ordered a stress test for the next day, which he failed. When they tried put in stints they found a much worse problem, almost total blockage of some arteries.

It is good to know that sometimes, something good can come from a tragedy. The man who died left a young wife and two children. I'm told she has no job, no skills, and no money. You might add her to your prayer list. I know exactly what she is feeling right now. It is not good.

Listen to me, ladies, all of you! I can't stress on women enough to get an education, get a set of marketable skills, and get a JOB at some point in your life, even if it is part-time. You may have to support yourself. I started college at 33 and graduated at 38. I went to work full-time at 39 for the first time in my life in a clerical job. My husband died just over 10 years after I started working at my job. I never went to work with the thought of being primary breadwinner and eventually my sole support. Today, I am just that.

Jerry began to have health problems in 1988. Had I not looked at Jerry one day, in 1989 and said, "You know, I think I should enroll in classes and get some job skills. You won't be in the military forever and your health might get worse. I can work and supplement our income." I do not know where we would have been and right about now. Things would have been a disaster.

In 1995 I graduated and he was medically discharged and unemployed for over two years by that point. I worked part-time teaching and temp jobs and he got a job driving a truck until his disability was approved. Then he had a series of job, illness, and unemployment. Had I not be able to get a good job, we'd have lost our home and everything else long ago.

Women, take care of yourself by educating yourself. Teach your daughter's to educate themselves. Learn every thing you can learn, no matter how trivial it seems. NO skill is useless.

Do not think for one minute this can't happen to you. Prepare for the worst and if it doesn't happen, you can sit in the sunshine and enjoy a a life of no troubles. If it does happen to you, you'll have fewer worries.