Busy day! Pam gets home just before noon Monday, and since Sunday afternoons are spent just this side of comatose I needed to get chores done today. I created a mental to-do list with some extra tasks I wanted to get done while she was gone and those still on the list this morning are now checked off.
Those happened after noon. Before noon I spent five hours working on the Rambler. I climbed underneath and worked on getting the transmission linkage adjusted. The indicator on the steering column didn't line up with the letters/numbers and it jumped in and out of gear. I went through the shop manual's procedure for fixing it but I'm not sure I got it right. Never mind; I put the front wheels back on and lowered it off the jack stands. Then I took it for a short drive around the neighborhood. The good news: the engine runs quiet and strong, and I quickly identified the hose clamps that weren't tight enough. Hey, wants a little coolant spraying all over the engine compartment? The bad news: when I apply the brakes it pulls hard to the right. Some serious adjustments needed. And the transmission still isn't right. It didn't jump in and out of gear, but it doesn't go into gear like it should. Still sloppy. The next step is to check fluid levels, and after that....? I may take it to a transmission shop and have them take a look just to make sure it's in good condition before I head across the vast and very hot Sonoran Desert.
We're doing something at Pathway that's an outgrowth of a sermon from several weeks ago. On that Sunday Teri and John read a brief - 2 minutes, give or take - synopsis of their spiritual history, what the Germans call heilsgeschichte. Tomorrow Karli will read hers, and in a couple of weeks Jeff will read his. Every few weeks someone (only the willing) will share their unique spiritual journey. And because the good people of Pathway come from very diverse backgrounds their stories are indeed unique. Unlike some churches, typically those with longer histories than our 4-year lifespan, a significant percentage of our adults were not raised in church. They were college age or later when they came to their crossroads.
I love hearing those stories. Few things move me like hearing someone's very personal account of their encounter with the God who loves them and his Son who died for them. Teri got emotional while reading hers and so did I. She got emotional because reading it was reliving it - reliving a point of discovery and transformation, the end of a search that for much of her life she didn't realize she was on. I got emotional because, like all the dear people of Pathway, she is one of God's children whom he has entrusted to my care, and this account came from her core.
I've read Karli's and Jeff's. Each is very different from the others'. God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform, and nothing is more wondrous than the transition from death to life. Karli's heilsgeschichte pivots on her ex-husband's parents... after the divorce. Jeff's involves the death of his father when he was a young boy. God's work is very personal. He knows each of us and works with us in the way best suited to our uniqueness.
I love my job. And the people are the best part.
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