qualitative vs. quantitative

Well, it’s been a busy couple of weeks, with Sean and Cathy Marston here for our Spiritual Life Conference (like a retreat). I’ll write more about that another time. Also, Max was here for 2 weeks – it was so short! Unfortunately, his suitcase never came from Senegal on the way here, so we had to go out and get a bunch of new clothes for him and worst of all, sew name labels on them. Just about my most abhorred job (worse than putting dishes away).

But today, actually, I want to tell a little marriage story. We had to use one of our SIM vehicles –the Nissan Pathfinder - over the weekend because of its bigger cargo capacity. When Rick and I used it on Saturday, (I was riding) I said it sounded funny, and it was riding strange. It sounded like transmission noise. On Sunday, it had been raining when it was time to go to church, and since it was parked in our driveway, I decided to take it rather than walk through the puddles and mud. As I pulled out of the driveway, I said to the kids– this car needs a new clutch. It just felt mushy and didn’t drive quite right. But I was sure it was the clutch. So I told Rick -- mmm, maybe it’s starting to slip, was the response. He then drove it to the airport Sunday evening to pick up our latest new missionaries. And when he came home, he said yep, it needed a new clutch, adding you can tell because “you can see on the tachometer how the rpms jump up when you engage the clutch and then drop down, even though you are accelerating, so so that means the clutch is slipping.” Guess that is a male/female thing – that mushy, not engaged feeling was enough reason to get it to the shop as far as I was concerned, but some concrete, measurable evidence was what Rick needed to be convinced. Well, I’m glad the evidence was available, so we can get it fixed before someone gets stranded. Time and time again over the years we have seen God take care of us with car business, so that no one ends up in a really awful accident or other circumstance. It’s one of the little ways we know He is watching over us.

There’s been much more to write about, just haven’t gotten to it. I’ll try again later this week.

PS 3 days later: Rick declares the Pathfinder undriveable after he can hardly pull out into traffic. It's in the shop now.