As I write this on the last day of February 2026, I will share with you all that the first couple of months have been a strange start to a New Year for your pastor. On the morning of January 3rd, I was just finishing up preparation for the Sunday services of worship – that involves putting some finishing touches on the sermon and printing bulletins for the folks that attend Gary Memorial. I was not feeling particularly “perky” that morning and I decided to order the bread for Holy Communion online from Walmart, rather than go out to the local Martin’s as is typically my habit. I just felt like I was “too tired” to venture out into the Saturday crowd at the store. I also knew that I had to prepare a series of Tuesday morning Bible studies – but I wasn’t quite up to that either, and I decided to cancel that first Bible study of the new year of 2026 and get a fresh start in the week ahead.
I announced my plans of forgoing Bible study and told her that I was going upstairs to have a lie down in hopes that I might soon shake the feeling of tiredness that was sort of overwhelming me. She said that she planned to take our dog Brody on a long walk that morning. As it turned out, as I lay in bed trying to regroup I felt more and more anxious and I went downstairs to tell Melissa I really was not feeling well at all. She asked if she should drive me to an urgent care center. I told her it might be better if we went to the ER at Howard County hospital, and so we went.
To make a long and tedious story somewhat more tenable, the staff at the ER decided that I had had a heart attack and that I likely had some issue that could be hopefully be settled with a cardiac catheterization. This turned out not to be the case, and I was shipped to Johns Hopkins downtown where I would have a quadruple bypass surgery (cabbage or CABG surgery to those in the know).
As I write to you today, I am still recovering from this ordeal and expect to begin cardiac rehab on Wednesday March 4. I am trying to ease back into my pastoral duties in the intent not to overexert and wind up either back in the ER or speaking with Jesus in a more up-close and personal fashion.
I think God still has a call placed on my heart, but what that looks like moving forward, I cannot say entirely. I hope to continue to be your pastor for the foreseeable future, if you will have me, and I hope that we can continue our walk together as children of God.
I thank you sincerely for all the cards and well wishes. I particularly thank you for all of the prayers for healing. I assure you that I could feel those, and I know that the One in charge of the healing also heard those prayers.
Peace and blessings,
Sam