Basement Treasures

Last week, three days of my life were spent unearthing the basement.  I used to vacuum the basement weekly and attend to the cobwebs and little messes that would accumulate.  Over the past three years, however, between the hecticness of life, kitchen construction, and having various visitors living in the basement (humans - not bugs, rodents, or otherwise); the basement has been out-of-sight -- out-of-mind.  When Pete went down to use the bathroom - "the men's room" let's say - he found that I had a bit of leak on the eastern wall most likely due to the large pine tree whose roots reside right next to my house.   This, of course, was going to take some action on my part and part of that was cleaning out the basement just in case there was any ensuing construction in the near future.  More on that in the future - not any time soon.  Anyhow, I cleaned and toiled and labored and what kept me going was finding a few hidden treasures in that dungeon of mine.  Not the expected treasures like my depression glass collection, or a favorite old book, or picture albums, but treasures that had long slipped my mind.

 Cousin Ryan made this turtle for me. 

Isn't it adorable?

 I'm not sure where this doll/figurine came from.  I know that I had it on my shelf in my bedroom as a little girl for a long long long time.  It was really cool to discover that "Haiti" was written on the stand.  It makes me think of the wonderful Haitian friends I made.  I hope and pray that I will be able to return to Port-au-Prince soon. 

I think I was made to be a missionary.  I am most alive and most effective when I serve God this way. 

 Oh these are precious; still in their original frames.  These are my grandparents' wedding photos.  I believe that they were hand painted to achieve the color. 

What a beautiful couple they are.  I miss them greatly.

 In this picture of the wedding party, I believe my Grandfather's brother, Charlie, is in view.  He died on the shores of Normandy. 

 Who could ever forget these dolls?  The two on the left were "snuggle dolls" - pull the string on their backs and they would snuggle away.  On the right, my Mandy doll. 

I'm still a snuggler :)

 This was a really something special to find, my Indian Princess garb.  My name tag "Ishpeming" and my vest with all of the patches.  Dad and I had a grand time in this YMCA program.  I am so glad he decided to do that with me.

 A hand-drawn map of the Maltese Islands given out by the Maltese Bureau of Tourism.  My grandparents gave this to me when I was doing my elementary report on Malta.  The map is really stunning now that I have 'older' and 'wiser' eyes to look at it.  I wonder if Mom and Dad will pick up a new map on their trip to Malta?

 The capital city Valleta.

 The Maltese Cross

The cross is a symbol adopted to remind Christians of our Lord's saving death - and with an empty cross his resurrection! Otherwise it is a quite neutral symbol, often in its form of equal sized arms, used in art due to the symmetry of design. Even as used by Christians, Christian artists have been inspired to produce many variations on the theme. Christian countries used the cross as the main symbol of decorations awarded to those who served the nation.

The Maltese cross, used as an identifying insignia on the habit of the Knights of Malta, was for the purpose of identifying themselves from their enemies. The Knights of Malta, also known as the Knights of St. John or the "hospitialers" was a religious order founded by Amalfitian merchants around the year 1070. The purpose of the order was to aid and care for pilgrims making the journey to the Holy Land. In 1136 the knights became a fully militarized order. The Knights driven out of Syria had been fleeing years of persecution by Islamic forces acquired Malta as their Sovereign Land from Charles V of Spain in 1530. This is the time that the Maltese Cross evolved into the present day form. The cross is described as a white eight pointed cross.

The eight points of the cross are believed to represent the eight vows the knights had to observe:

1) live in truth;
2) have faith;
3) repent of sins;
4) give proof of humility;
5) love justice;
6) be merciful;
7) be sincere and whole hearted;
8) endure persecution.
(courtesy of http://www.choppers.com/iron_cross.asp)

 A portion of the map showing where St. Paul shipwrecked

in 60 AD as described in Acts 27 & 28.

 Two typed letters from Mrs. Gutowsky in 5th grade.  Now that I am a teacher I have NO IDEA - NO CLUE - how she was able to write such personable letters.  I LOVED finding these tucked in my cubby.  She was a phenomenal teacher.  I wish I could tell her today!

 A page from the book I wrote titled, "I Get Scared When. . . "  Apparently I thought I had seen a shark at some point.  For the record, I have never seen a wild shark - not even off the coast of South Africa where Discovery's Shark Week is filmed.  Go Figure.

 A page from the book I wrote about Michigan Apples.  Whenever I have to consider the species/variety of apple I am looking at, this picture still pops in my mind. 

 The whole collection of "warm fuzzy" notes I received on my birthday in second grade.  Mrs. Spiteri certainly had a way of making each of her students feel loved.

 These special notes from Peter who REALLY missed me when I went away to college.  Truth is, I missed him more.

 And the final treasures . . . since this is the "family" blog . . . are a few pages from this book on the things I love.  It still is true today.

Jesus (glad I had my priorities straight)

 My family (Mom, Dad, Myself, Tim

(pete-you were still a twinkle in heaven at that point-1980)

 My grandparents - notice how everyone's hair color was spot-on!

My Aunts and Uncles.

Don't worry cousins, I am sure that I meant my Aunts & Uncles and all of their kids!

So, you just never know what you are going to find in the crevices of the dungeon - there just might be some treasures.  - T

Orange You Beautiful?

I thought that Lake Michigamme was a really beautiful lake. The water temperature was cool and refreshing but not so cold that I didn't want to hop in. The sandy bottom was fantastic and I loved how it remained shallow for a significant distance. The color of the water was really stunning and I had to do a little research to find out if my suspicion about where it came from was correct. It took a while but I finally confirmed my suspicion with the Field Guide to Aquatic Phenomena. It is a really interesting website published by The University of Maine. The answer is that the iron ore from the ground makes it way into the lake and therefore causes it to reflect an orange color!

During my research I found that according to this site, Lake Michigamme is one of Michigan's largest lakes (although much smaller than the Great Lakes.) It reaches a depth of over 70 feet. Its rocky 95-mile shoreline and underwater structure make it good, if challenging, for fishing especially for muskies and small mouth bass.

New Digs & Fa La La La La

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that my church has some new digs.  I am excited to say that we are no longer a portable church and we are living in our "new to us" facility at 309 N. Main Street in Royal Oak.  Genesis the Church started back in 1997 as a young and hip ministry at Kensington Community Church.  By late 1998 we were challenged to plant a church in Royal Oak, a lovely bedroom community with and extremely active and vibrant downtown.  40 of us moved to Royal Oak and started a church.  What were we thinking?  20 year olds running a church?  Who knew?

Royal Oak attracted and still attracts a huge variety of people to its hip, funky, and fun downtown eateries, bars, and social hot spots.  I really love my town.  Anyhow, in 1999 we officially launched and we have had our services in many locations including a middle school cafetorium, 3 different high school auditoriums, a middle/elementary school gym, a black box theater, a comedy club, and Royal Oak's Music Theater.  The latest location we were at for 2 years was Berkley High School where I work.  We had a great relationship with the high school and the custodial staff was seriously sad when we left.  They really were 'for us' which is a testament to God's power to use personal relationship's to make a path in the desert.  In other words a church had a great relationship with a public school.  Imagine That?!

Several years ago we had a building campaign called Epicenter in order to raise fund for a building.  Our mortar team searched high and low and examined truly "out of the box" of normal options for us to find a permanent location.  Properties in Royal Oak are extremely expensive in the downtown area and it felt like it was next to impossible.  Perhaps God designed us to be portable?  But God was working in the undercurrent.  We had to wait and trust.  Two years ago, we needed to find some space for some of our groups to meet for a 12-step program and the First Baptist Church of Royal Oak was ready and willing to let the group meet at their church building.  The FBCRO was a church that was celebrating their 170th anniversary.  They would be having the celebration at their church on Main Street in downtown Royal Oak - where their historical marker lies.  Our church staff started meeting with their pastor, Dave Nickels, and  as their relationship grew they realized that they both led churches who wanted to do the exact same thing in Royal Oak:  make Jesus known, live in community that disciples each other toward richer and deep relationship with Jesus, and be a people who were the hands and feet of Jesus to those who many would turn their noses down upon.  Soon after, our offices moved into FBCRO because of our expanding need for space.  Finally, we could see that God was moving these two congregations together with the same heart.  We had the same charge from God - we looked different though.  First Baptist was a traditional community with a traditional building and strong core of people who had been members for more years than most of us cood imagine.  One dear lady was a member for over 80 years.  She is 96 years old. On the other hand Genesis the church was a non-traditional community with 2 trailers which could move anywhere to set up church.  Genesites on average were about 33 years old and had growing families.   We couldn't look any more different but our hearts sang the same tune.

Since the time that Pastor Dave announced that he would be retiring from his official position at FBCRO so that he could be a pastor - without the administrative responsiblities.  His official retirement would take place at the end of 2009.  In his last year of adminsitrative responsiblities, he and the Genesis Staff did something that most people were and still are highly skeptical of - they joined two churches under one name.  As of January 1st, 2010, there is now one church meeting at 309 N. Main Street.  The legal name is Genesis the Church formerly known at First Baptist Church of Royal Oak.  Most will know us as Genesis the Church - we now have 180 years behind us! We know there will be many challenges for us in the future - but where we see mountains - God sees wide open avenues.

I had the pleasure of leading worship our first service on January 3rd.  It was a thrill - a mix of what I would called ancient and modern words that glorify God.  Our set list was All Creatures of Our God and King,  Dwell,  Enter This Temple, Not To Us, and Glorious.  The church was packed - even the balcony.   But more importantly, our congregation was EXCITED - THRILLED - at the opportunity to walk together shoulder-to-shoulder striving toward God's purposes - doing His work - we hope for at least another 180 years.  I am confident in this - for He who began a good work - will be faithful to complete. 

And now onto the Fa La La La La La
In the midst of the holidays and moving into our new church the worship leaders, including myself, have been writing new worship music that we will record on January 29th.  We are really excited - tired - but excited.  We have been rehearsing late into the night.  Last night we recorded our demos for the sound engineer.  Here is a link to those songs.  You will have to select the iDisk Public Folder (Graphite) and then open up the Folder that says 1-15-2010.  They are RAW which means there is no editing and no mixing - so they might sound a little bit off at this point - but they will at least give you a glimpse of what will come on the CD.  I wrote and am singing lead vocals on "Cry Out of Romans,"  I'll also sing background vocals on We Are Ready and Glory.   I can't wait until the final CD is finished and I can give you a copy!  Thanks for letting me catch you up on the latest.  Love T

Lots going on

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all of the wonderful comments on the pictures.  Aren't the girls beautiful?  I have lots more photos but I am going to only post a few each evening.  I'll be visiting Pete and Emily mid-January so I'll be able to shoot a new batch then!

I hope to write a longer post in the very near future about another something exciting!  My church has moved into its "new to us" permanent location in downtown Royal Oak.  It has been very exciting and I can't wait to fill you in on all the details - they are extraordinary in my opinion.  That will be for another post though.  Also, I will be recording one new song on our church's next cd in just a couple of weeks.  I was hoping to record two songs but I just wasn't able to finish all the details yet on a song from Ezekiel 37.   If you haven't read this passage I would encourage you to do so - it has become one of my favorites.  The song I am recording is titled Cry Out Of Romans.  I think this might be one of the best songs that I have written yet.  My friend Jonathan is playing the guitar and Carol will be adding in piano.  I'll be posting about the process as we move toward January 29th.

On a totally separate note, we had our first decent snow here in Detroit and I was thrilled to use my yooper scooper.  I was able to clear the entire drive without breaking a sweat in about 10 minutes.  I love my scooper.  Even better, a neighbor down the street hooked up a plow to the front of his ATV and plowed the sidewalks up and down our entire block - it was such a gift to come home to after a long day at work!  Oh and my Dad was telling me today that there might be snow in Atlanta tomorrow.  Since there "might" be snow accumulation up to 1 inch they have cancelled school - of course, he said, there are all of about 10 snow plows in the entire state of Georgia.  He he he - Ha ha ha!  My students are dying for a snow day but I have assured them - we will have school tomorrow!

Oh Yes I Did!

Well I haven't been feeling so well since Thanksgiving. I developed a killer headache on Thursday and I just couldn't get rid of all of it. On Monday came a stuffy nose and sore throat. Bah Humbug - Why am I getting sick? I wash my hand umpteen times a day. Anyhow - in an effort to ward off the cold I bought some Zicam (actually the walgreens version). It contains zinc which has shown mixed results for reducing the severity and duration of a cold. Then I took the big plunge and I bought a neti pot. Oh - it is such a weird feeling - but surprisingly - it really does help to clean out the stuffy nose. Here is a brief description at Mayo Clinics. What do you think? Are you going to give it a try?

Big News from Silverhill, Alabama

I just LOVE this story. Read ALL ABOUT it! at Zion Lutheran's website.

The article also appeared in their local newspaper - How Cool!!! The pastor sent it to mom and dad and they scanned it for all of us to see. There are three pages. Click on the links below.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Mailman Madness

Hi Everyone - What do you do when your grumpy old hardworking mailman leaves a notice in your mailbox saying that he won't deliver the mail because he is crazy thinks that you don't put enough salt on the driveway and sidewalk? Mind you, I have shoveled every day that it has snowed and have placed 400 pounds of salt down; enough that the cement is coming loose again on my steps. Mind you, this is the same mailman who felt it necessary that I cut my beautiful pinetree all the way to the trunk so that the branches didn't brush against his delicate handsome postal jacket everyday. Mind you, this is the same mail man who would not deliver because the cement on one of my steps was chipped off because I put 400 pounds of salt down so that he would be safe and sound last year. Mind you, this is the same mail man who illegally left me a gift certificate for ice cream in my mailbox 7 years ago with a sympathy card and a poem about Dante when my sewer pipes backed up into the house. Albeit, very thoughtful, it was WEIRD!!!! So, Any Advice? ps. I filed a complaint yesterday - the lady on the phone was very nice.