The past 5 months have been a whirlwind. The trajectory of our life went entirely in a different direction than we could have anticipated. It all started with Jolene getting hurt.

Back in August the four of us went to Hawaii. We’ve been to Hawaii 8 times now. This time while walking at the Hilton Resort on the Big Island, Jolene stumbled on a step that was unlit. For the last 3 days she was on crutches, unable to put any weight on it. The silver lining, we got to skip the lines at the airport.

When we got back home Jolene was out of work over month, nearly two. Since she was unable to move it for so long, she applied for a Nurse Manager position at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital. She was given the job and was able to use her scooter crutch for a few weeks as she healed.

Also, since Jolene couldn’t drive her Mazda 3 stick anymore, we decided to use our saved money to purchase a Chevy Silverado 1500. We’ve always wanted a blue truck, so at least something came of it. The pickup gets the same gas mileage as her Mazda, so she now gets to drive it to work.

Hemet Church

While this was going on I started going to the Hemet Seventh-day Adventist Church. Jolene had been going for the past two years. I had only been going off and on. Jolene is a director of the Adventurer Club there. So occasionally I helped out on campouts and music.

When Jolene got hurt she couldn’t drive. So I drove her and the kids every week. So I began to help out with the media team. Each week I started helping out with capturing video for their Hemet SDA Youtube Channel.

Each week we got better and better. I’ve designed many websites in the past. Hemet Church had an old website that was out of date. So I took over the creation of a new website. That included creating a new logo, and setting up a Google Ad Grants Account since they are a nonprofit. After hundreds of hours investing time in it, I believe it can finally sustain itself.

We then got involved with their Pathfinder Club. After 16 years I started playing the guitar again. So I started teaching a Guitar Honor their to 11 students.

After that we began helping out on Wednesdays passing out food for their Community Services. I ended up filming a short promotional video for them.

If you had asked me back in July what I would be doing, I would have never guessed that it would be doing this. Going back to church let alone Hemet Church was not on my mind. I went from not attending to driving 100 mph with no safety harness. Now we’ve got to figure out moderation so that we don’t burn ourselves out.

My wife’s near broken ankle may be what led us to Hemet Church. Now we need to find the balance between life, work and church. If we don’t, we will burnt out again and return to our old ways.

Timothy