searching for a fellow like Tertullian!

I was just glancing through a Christian History magazine on women in church history, and I ran across this quote by Tertullian -- from a letter he wrote to his wife, asking her to marry a Christian if he died:

A pagan would not be "willing to let his wife go through one street after another to other men's houses, and indeed to the poorer cottages, in order to visit the brethren? Who would like to see her being taken from his side by some duty of attending a nocturnal gathering? At Easter time who will quietly tolerate her absence all the night? Who will unsuspiciously let her go to the Lord's Supper -- that feast upon which they heap such calumnies? Who will let her creep into jail to kiss the martyr's chains? Or bring water for the saints' feet?"

I love this description -- part of the reason I love being single is that I CAN have those kinds of ministries. And the married ladies who I find most close fellowship with are those whose husbands understand and support those kinds of ministries.

It was neat to see this description going back SO far in church history.

He valued his wife's active life of service to the Lord and His people, and wanted to be sure that continued after his death. The way to be sure it continued was that she marry another believer.

Loved it! A man like THAT, is who I'm looking for! (Obviously he believed some odd things too -- but the church was SO young at that point, that they were still flailing a bit, getting their feet grounded in orthodoxy.)

another small summer blessing...

My two favorite fruits are both in season at the same time. :)

a couple mid-summer blessings

This tree (whose variety I don't know) gets beautiful orange berries this time of summer - and it fills the view of my guest room window, and half the living room windows. I just love looking out at it. If anyone knows what kind it is, I'm interested.

Yesterday I came home, and the wave of zucchini had reached our condo -- there was a pile of them in the foyer, free for the taking. I just love having someone else plan my dinner and provide the ingredients. I cooked them with some tomatoes, onions and mushrooms, and put them over rice. It is most delicious, and has gone into its third day of leftovers.

Got any summer blessings to share?

Harry Potter and National Defense

Does anyone find it ironic that the New York Times will, without apology, publish government secrets that will endanger our country ... yet what people REALLY pitch a fit about is that they've publishing a review of the new Harry Potter book prior to the release date?

We've got some seriously mixed up priorities in this country.

I've been working on that "couch potato to runner" schedule, but haven't gotten past the first week. My brother recommended wearing a heart monitor that will tell you what pace to run at ... and mine still hasn't gotten past the "slow down, you're over your limit" mantra. I decided I'd keep repeating Week 1 until the electronic nag will cease pestering me throughout the last half of the session. But younger-brother definitely has a point -- I've been trying to go WAY too fast, and that's why running has been a lot of not-fun-activity so far in my life. Though when I comply with the electronic nag's wishes, I'm going SO slow that I could actually WALK faster. I'm hoping this is a short-lived phase!

I've also started making some jewelry to try and sell on Etsy. It's a site that sells hand-made things, and I like what I see there. I'll let you know when I have a store up and running.

Plans for the weekend: none. My FAVORITE! :)

little darling just has a bubbly personality

I wasn't sure whose side to take in this little difference of opinion, until the mother said, "he just has a bubbly personality."

That's clueless-mom code for ... "I think my little darling's outbursts are just adorable, and so should you."

I'm sure, from what's written here, that the stewardess could have spoken with more tact.

But ... really ... all the mother would have had to do was ask her little darling to please be quiet for a while. Instead, she chose to throw a royal snit.

I remember sitting in a restaurant next to a table of women, one of whom had a toddler. The baby was being quite good, until the women started holding her up in the air, and bouncing her around, encouraging her to shriek, and laugh loudly. Clueless ... just ... clueless.

Locks of Love

Every year or two I try to send some hair to Locks of Love - if you have opportunity, I'd recommend you do the same! They make hair prostheses for children who lose their hair due to disease or illness. They're more than wigs - they actually make a custom-made cap fit to the child's head, and attach the hair to that - so the child can wear it swimming, and it won't accidentally come off in other situations.

They're good folks - send them some hair if you get a chance!

Doing battle with the forces of bureaucracy ...

I just discovered that when my mortgage was reassigned, my property taxes stopped being paid from the escrow account.

So I'm going to have to call the mortgage company this morning and find out what's happening with that.

I hate this kind of thing with a passion ...

but more so now that I discovered that the mortgage company is in Southfield. (this is a pseudonym for "Detroit").

I'm not sure if it's reasonable to believe that a whole city can have a global I-don't-give-a-rip attitude ... but if it's possible, then Detroit has it.

Whenever I call a company there, I get people on the phone who sound half-asleep, and seem to be only weakly interested in whether they're actually solving your problem or making it worse.

So, if you find out the Township is auctioning off my condo next year - don't be surprised.

Groan - I'm SO not looking forward to this phone call.

(oddly enough, blogger isn't allowing me to title this post ... I believe they may have just moved their offices to Detroit)

So Trinka, what WERE you doing at the Lansing police station at that hour of the night?

Funny you should think to ask!

About 7:30 last night I got a call that a girl from church whose parents are out of the country right now had rolled her pickup on the other side of Lansing.

The truck was totaled. She was OK (though I'm sure very sore this morning). The police officer had taken her to the downtown police station to wait for a someone to pick her up.

I volunteered, and M. rode along with me.

We found the station OK, and she was (apparently) the only one in the building. No cars in the parking lot ... no police officers evident ... just her sitting there behind a locked door waiting for someone with a working vehicle.

When things got interesting was when we tried to find her truck, so she could retrieve her belongings.

We had the name of the towing company, but no address. No Lansing map. No GPS (though there was one in her parents' car that we were immediately wishing we'd grabbed to bring alone!)

The girl at the pizza place next to the police station knew where the towing company was, and gave us directions ... which .... in trying to get us to Martin Luther King Drive, neglected to mention that it ran parallel to the road we were on, and hence, no matter how far we drove, we would never find it.

The drunk at the liquor store assured us that, if we just kept driving, we would, eventually, come to M.L.K.

We drive and drive and drive

neighborhood continues to look unsavory

We stopped at a light, hoping to grab some more directions, and a police officer pulled up next to us.

We asked him where M.L.K. was, and he asked us to pull over, and he'd give us directions.

This is where we found out it was parallel to, and about a quarter mile from, the road we were on (Cedar.)

A side note - he was a K-9 officer, and let us meet his dog. That was so cool. I've always found it fascinating how much those animals can learn. She was a beautiful German shepherd.

When we finally found M.L.K., and the towing company, there were, to our amazement, actually people there. So the yard was unlocked, and we were able to get her things.

The trip home was relatively uneventful, except for the story of the semi forcing her off the road.

We got her home and tucked in by about 11:30.

And as I pulled into her driveway, I was just awed at how God's goodness was demonstrated in the whole thing. So much could have gone terribly wrong.

The truck was a terrible mess. It either didn't have airbags, or they didn't work, because they hadn't triggered. Rolling at 70 mph, she could have been killed so easily, or else badly hurt.

God protected her from anything worse than the normal post-accident aches and pains.

She had her cell phone with her, and it was working, so she could find one of us to help her.

My car had been out of comission earlier yesterday with a dead battery. I had discovered it, and it was charged again in time to be available when she called. (P.S. -- leaving your lights on is NOT conducive to good battery health)

We were led to people who sent us in the (generally) right direction to find the truck. Really ... how could a person expect random (occasionally inebriated) strangers to know the location of a specific towing company in a city like that?

For whatever reason, she had some important documents in the truck. We were able to find them. They hadn't been stolen or lost.

So ... her parents continue on happily serving the Lord for two weeks in Africa, and hopefully won't realize until they get home how differently their trip could have ended.

On the exercise front - this morning, I got up and tried the first day of the running schedule. Still not committing, but interested ...!

Hey - did I mention I got to meet a police dog? (I'm so easily pleased) :)

why do I keep trying Target?

Yesterday I went into Target on my lunch, looking for a bin to use for recycling paper.

I come to the same two conclusions every time I go into that store:

* It has essentially the same merchandise carried by Walmart, only with higher prices
* The merchandise that IS different from Walmart is trendy. (note - in Trinka's vocabulary, "trendy" is NOT a positive adjective.)

I go in there about once every three years, and always come out feeling as if it were a gigantic waste of time.

I just saw a link on another blog to the Couch Potato to 5-K running plan. I've never been too sure about running - it always gives me this terrible pain in my side that none of the home remedies I've been offered seem to help. (drink more water ... hold your abs in while you run ... etc.)

However, I'm intrigued by the slowness of the thing. I'm considering .... (ONLY considering!). :)

This afternoon I'm dog-sitting for our pastor and his wife, who are in Africa on a missions trip. That means I get to spend time with a happy black lab, while loafing next to a fenced-in, shrieking-children-free pool. Life is good. :)