Passports, President, Politics and Pastors! (Part 1)

[Dr Denis O'Callaghan]

By SEANCHAÍ (Gaelic for "The Storyteller")

Gentle Readers,

As I told you in the past but just to remind some of our new readers my family comes from Mallow County Cork in (where else? Ireland). By way of Toronto Canada and then when no one was looking we came to the United States (No really we are here legally, just joking no one can understand my humor anyway they can’t tell when I am joking or not, you choose- rather like the election). I have spent more time in school and study around the world than most. I have in fact a world class education (from several world class universities.) (Not bragging just fact,) teaching and preaching in hundreds of Churches and thousands of people have heard me preach and teach with coffee cup in hand telling all sorts about the love of God and His Son. and what Grace is all about.

It’s been more than 15 years since I have been home (Ireland) and we have settled in here for the reasons that I am about to relate. A fact that you might not know Ireland is one of the countries that can carry a dual citizenship that is the U.S. Government will recognize the Irish Citizenship even though I can be a citizen of both countries.

Now for about 10 years I was pastoring in a small church just outside of Springfield Illinois when I received a call from my mother in Indiana that my step father had contracted Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. Knowing that my mother would need help We resigned our post at this little church that we loved and moved to Indiana to help my mother. My step father lingered for a long time and we bought a little home to be close. I took the first job I could to pay the necessary bills at a Blueprint shop (where Ammonia is used to develop the blueprints- more on that latter). The shop in Indiana required me to work 14-16 hour days 7 days a week just to keep up with the jobs that came in and as a consequence I suffered a massive heart attack called Myocardial infarction or MI [which is is the death of heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot. ] I lost a 1/3 of my heart due to the heart attack. But within a month I was back at work....

To be continued ...