The first week of my first August Intensive at seminary is over. It's been refreshing and wonderful while also exhausting and difficult. I am going to pick a few highlights to share with you.
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We each received a shell out of
a bowl of water at the Renewal of
Baptism service. It's a good
tangible reminder that we belong
to God. |
God is big. I am pretty conservative (that's something else I've learned). Our cohort is a great group of diverse people; we have different gifts, backgrounds, and specific callings but one Lord. We are also a fun and loving group intent on learning together from one another. On Monday, we celebrated our baptism and affirmed our calls together. On Friday, in "God's Redemptive Mission" class we talked about Christendom, when the church and state were merged and spreading together, and about the Crusades where non-Christians were killed. It wasn't new knowledge, but it never gets easier to hear. We've been reading Psalm 139 every day in class and on Friday, I was struck by the last half of verse 8: "if I make my bed in Sheol [think "Hell"], you [God] are there." The Church has certainly made her bed in hell a time or two, but God hasn't left. He is big...bigger than our inadequacies and mistakes.
- The Bible has a lot to say. Together with two from my cohort (and, incidentally, also from my suite), I took part in a reading contest on Wednesday evening. It's called the Mihelic Reading Competition. I have no idea what Mihelic means, maybe a name of someone? There's just not enough time to ask all the questions that run through my mind on any given day so I didn't find out. Anyway, we were give Habakkuk 3 to read as we would read in front of the congregation on a Sunday. Some of us did some opening remarks or prayed first, some used liturgical responses at the end, etc. There a prize associated with the contest, but it's not clear what the prize is (at least I don't know; another question I didn't find an answer to), but it's not announced until May. Hopefully it will be free tuition and room/board for next August intensive. :) Anyway, while I like competition, I didn't participate to win, but rather to have the experience. I figure that having an extra chance to read scripture in front of an audience is good, and it was. What I really enjoyed, though, was the experience of hearing all the other readers read the same passage. I believe there were about a dozen of us, so we heard the same scripture more than ten times. Each time, there was something new to hear. The same thing has occurred each day in class when we read the same Psalm. Note: if you're not reading your Bible often, get after it. Read and listen what God has to say to you.
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We went up the "steepest railroad track in the country" to get
to this view. It is spectacular! |
Dubuque is beautiful. The river is so pretty. We went to a restaurant last night and ate on the patio overlooking the water. There were several boats out with their lights on. It was peaceful. Earlier yesterday we went to the farmer's market (it is HUGE) and then went up the rail to overlook the city. Again, it is so pretty to lookout over the bluff and see the river.
- Graduate school is hard. You wouldn't know it after reading #3, but this intensive is intense! Except for one book for research methods, which I've determined to treat as a reference book, I'm now caught up on reading for where I should have been before Friday afternoon (it's Sunday afternoon - so two days "late"). We are in class 8-5:45 (except for chapel and lunch mid-day) and then have a few chapters to read and a paper to write each night. I told my professor that I feel like I need to write at the top of each paper "My apologies, Dr. Lewis. This paper is horrible." But really, I'm doing my best; there's lots of information and lots of formation. It's going well.
- I'm thankful for much! The seminary provides an excellent lunch each day, for which I'm very thankful because I wouldn't take the time to nourish myself as well as they do. I'm also thankful for my new friend Chrisy. She's a certified PiYo instructor so I get to do PiYo workouts with her to get my blood flowing in the mornings. I have wonderful suite-mates. We laugh and talk and cry together. The professors are excellent. They're super caring and always prepared. They work together well. I've enjoyed them all. My favorite part of the day is when we are led in scripture reading, prayer, meditation, etc by Dr. Forshey. This morning when we walked in to church, one of our professors was a greeter and she cried out "Yea, so happy to see you! These are more of my students!" and proceeded to give us hugs. I'm thankful for my family, those related to be by blood and those of my spiritual family. We are all in this together for the Glory of God.
Thank you for your love and prayers. Thank you for reading. God bless each of you!
