Support is a Matter of Interpretation, I guess.

-- submitted by JulieAnn

A few weeks ago, the head of our women's group at church emailed me asking if she and some members of her committee could come to my house and sit down with me on Wednesday night, say around 7pm. I let her know that the youth were putting on a big dinner that night for some of the elderly people from church, so Wednesday would not be a good time for me.

She emailed me back, telling me that Wednesdays were the nights she does visits, and could I then meet with her the following Wednesday?

Ok here's the thing-

I have a sort of high profile job at church, working in the youth program. We meet every single Wednesday night. Her own daughter attends the youth program every single Wednesday night, which is probably why she is available to make her visits on that night.
When I told her about the dinner, I was trying to gently remind her about what I do, saving her the embarrassment of appearing thoughtless.

Message not received. (In retrospect, I wonder if she thought I meant I would be attending the dinner as an "elderly" person?)

Anyway, I sent her a reply telling her I was not available any Wednesday nights, and couldn't she just call me or email me to ask whatever she needed?

To which she responded that no, she really wanted to sit down and talk. She had rearranged her schedule so that she could come on Saturday. Would 10am be all right?

Coincidentally, there was a youth service project scheduled for Saturday morning, so no, that would not work either. I felt kind of bad that she had already rearranged her schedule, but she did it before asking me, so what could I do?

Still, I felt bad.

The following Sunday, upon meeting her in the hall at church, she made a remark to someone standing by her about my lack of availability to meet with her. I'm pretty sure she was trying to be funny, but it came off awkward and fell flat.

"How about today?" I asked. "Let's just do it right now."

She begrudgingly agreed, and pulled me into a side room to ask me her big mysterious question that could not be asked by phone or email.

"How are you doing? And how can we support you better?"

cricket.............cricket.............cricket............

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