Like most blogs that I have read with seminary graduates the days leading up to graduation is a time of reflection on the last four years of my life.  I have spend the last four years working on papers, reading books and providing ministry to many people.  To think that I have been in contact with thousands of people between my field education site, CPE site, Internship site, and the church that I worked at my senior year.  There have been a lot of great memories and I have created a lot of great relationships.  It will be sad to say good-bye.

This past Sunday I worked my last day at the church I have been working at as a youth director this past year.  The first six months was very fusterating because nothing that I did worked.  We just did not have the kids to do anything.  But then in January kids started coming out and we have had a pretty successful program.  It was very sad for me to say good-bye. The kids are great and I am going to miss them for sure.

So two of the things that have taken up majority of my time is over….done and done.

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I am still in pain from my fall the other day.  It is my back that hurts.  I can’t sit at all and I finally decided to go and see the doctor this afternoon.  I am not sure what they will do — last fall when I had a constant pain in my back they just gave me pain medicine.  But this is a different type of pain so I don’t know if there is something else that they can do.  I am glad that all I have to do now is rest.

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There is not much news on the first call front.  I am waiting until the end of May for my trial sermon and interview.  I am very excited about it and nervous that it goes well.  Not only is this church a  great church but I am very excited to finally be settled and working on ministry.  As things advance I will keep everyone updated.

That’s all for now. I hope to catchup on my blogging the next few days.  There have been lots of things I want to blog on and reflections that I would like to share so come back and visit again soon.

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I am interviewing for a potential church in May 28th.  It is not as soon as we would of liked but schedules did not permit a sooner time.  If everything goes well and as I would expect I hope to be in place by July 1st.  In between then I will take some time to rest and relax, move out of our apartment, find a place to store our stuff, move in with my parents (thanks mom and dad) and get some kind of part time work which I hope will include supply preaching, and some other well paying minimal commitment job (which should be easy to find……right?)

I don’t mind waiting as much if I have a plan and we are trying to come up with that now.

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Classes are ending well – I am glad I took a class last summer to get things out of the way.  I don’t think I have as much work as some others, but I still have things to do.

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Graduation is on May18th – I am excited about that.  I think I am ready to move on.  Living off campus has been a blessing and curse.  We are far enough away (about 45 min) where we are not able to come to campus for a party or a night event (having two small kids doesn’t help).  I miss that community that I experienced my first two years of seminary. But it has been a good transition for us– since we are not as close to the community as we once were we are ready to move on.  The boy will have enough trouble separating from his friends at the day care.  But I hope he will like where we move too.

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The family is doing well – with the change of weather there are some coughs and stuffy noses in the house but nothing terrible.  I just hope it gets warm soon and we can start packing up all the winter clothes.

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I need to catch up on some emails before lunch.  I don’t know when I will get on here again in the next week.  Most of the words that will be writing will be about the Book American Jesus (I have not read that yet) or about using the 10 commandments as a basis for pre-marriage work.

To all the other seminarians out there – Good luck the next few weeks!!!!!

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Dr. John who is a Lutheran Pastor has visited my site. He has some great personal stories to share about his journey to ministry and I will let him share it. Click here to read about it.

Proclaiming Softly came to visit. Here is the description on her site “…at the Door of the Church. The Unfinished Church…A Place to discuss Faith, Religion, and denomination. God gave us minds: Let’s use them!” She has a love for outdoor ministry, like myself. And her daughter graduated from the seminary that I go too! You can’t get better than that!

Unlikely Banter has stopped by to visit my blog. Here is his description of himself “Always: Curious husband and dad looking at the world his daughters are growing up in through a Lectionary lens. Sometimes: Lutheran Preacher in Minnesota on the Edge in the Mid-Western Prairie and the Hiawatha Valley reading scripture and loving life, my wife, daughters, dog, cat, art, hunting, fishing, books, movies, friends, and family. Posting about life and the world whenever moved to do so.” I am sure that unlikely and I would get a long just fine.

Welcome everyone to my blog — and those of you reading this please do stop by and visit their blogs.

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As a senior seminarian I have the privilege to preach at one of the seminary’s chapel services. Tonight is my night. Please pray for me. I have what I think is a decent sermon. I hope it is well received. I will post it tonight if all goes well.

I hope I don’t come across like the guy in the video below. I came across this video from another blog and I found it on You Tube. There is a reason I have spent thousands of dollars on seminary education. If you ever hear me preach like this guy, please someone shoot me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDxcyqeRc-4

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We are almost at the end of the birthday run.  My daughter’s (baby girl)  birthday is Valentines day and my son’s (the boy) is on the 26th.  I don’t remember if I mentioned that or not. Plus my parents are at the beginning of February.  We have a party planned for this Saturday for the boy and his friends from day care at Peace A Pizza.  It is a cute little place where the kids make their own pizza and they decorate a cookie for the party.  The boy keeps saying he is going to Pizza Hut, but I am sure he won’t care as long as there is pizza involved.

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy. I preached last night at St. Paul’s for the Wednesday night Lenten service.  Next Tuesday I preach at Chapel on campus and the following Sunday I preach again at St. Paul’s.   Not to mention the various reading assignments and presentations that need to go into that mix.  I am somewhat thankful for the busy schedule because it takes my mind off the looming synodical assignment  for Region Seven on Palm Sunday.  I hear the interview process with the bishops is great but it makes for a long and intense day.  But I will know by 5:00 that evening which synod I will  be going too so come and check it out.

I wish I had some deep theological or inspirational message to share but right now I am trying to keep my head above the water.  I will try and post one of my sermons from this stint when I get a chance.

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The really sad thing about being a parent is to watch your child suffer with some sort of sickness (or in anyway) and there is very little that you can do in order to help them.  You wish they they can understand what is going on but she is so little and so sick that she has no idea.  I am thankful that everything was gone by her birthday (February 14th) and she was healthy and happy for her birthday party on Saturday.

I have been struggling lately as well….I lost my voice around Christmas and I had to have tests done and I have been diagnosed with Reflux Laryngitis – it is manageable but I still get hoarse after talking a lot or singing, but in about 4-5 weeks I should be 100%.

That’s all the major stuff on the home front.  “The boy” (my son) is doing well and he is going to be four years old later this month.  I can’t believe he is already four years old.  I know it sounds sappy but I still remember when he was born, and holding him for the first time.  Now he is his own little man and he is doing his own thing.  Tonight we prayed our bed time prayer with his Godmother.  Even though he was being shy (he only prayed the “now I lay me…” prayer and not the Lord’s Prayer with her) I thought it was great. He was really excited to do it and to watch him interact with her over the phone was great.  He was excited but shy– I could tell he was being shy because he had his hands in his mouth, dead give away.  I hope it can be a regular thing and we can do it with his Godfather as well.

I am taking a Chataism class this semester and we are talking about the Ten Commandments, the Creeds and Lord’s Prayer.  I have been thinking  about them and how to connect them with my children.  I think at this age he is just being familiar with what they are is good enough, but it is something I hope to explore in this class and in the years to come with my children.

I just finished watching “My Dad is Better Than Your Dad.”  The premise of the show is for dad’s and their children compete in challenges both physical and mental to see which combo can outlast the rest.  Like any reality show there is an element of “you stink” at the end.  I don’t know if I like that aspect when it comes to children.  It is one thing for adults to get in the mix and try and win money and make a fool of themselves, but when you drag children into it you can really harm them, by them thinking that it was their fault that they lost or that their dad is not good enough.  What do you think?

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On Wednesday we will have the regional assignments for our first call.  A Bishop representative from each of the nine regions, and a seminary are currently in Chicago talking about 200 and something candidates going into the first call process.  They read about each candidate and pray for them and then decide which area they are going to send the candidates.

This Wednesday a phone call will come into the seminary from Chicago from our Seminary Representative.  The community will have a worship service and then all the seniors will gather at the presidents house to find our regional assignment.

As someone awaiting their decision it is really nerve-racking.  My wife and I hope that we are assigned to Region seven.  On the one hand it would be flattering that another region would really want me to come to their synod, however I know what would be best for us and our family.

For Region Seven the bishops from each synod (Upstate New York, Metro-New York, New Jersey, Northeast Penn, Southeast Penn, and New England) personally interview each individual assigned to the region and then assign the go behind closed doors and fight for us to come to their synod.  (Well I hope they would at least want me)  I have let most people know that we would like to come to the New England Synod.  That’s where our family is and most of our friends, so we would like to be close.  We would like that support which we dearly miss.   We especially miss it now because we are separated from our second home (the seminary)  this year living in Souderton.  But we have and continue to manage.

So that is what is going on with us recently, that’s only part of what our lives have been recently.  It never ends….but we are in a very exciting time in our life, there are many possibilities that lay ahead of us and we are going to need lots of prayers and support the next few months as our future is played out in the hands of people who only know me by a piece of paper.

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We had a great vacation.  The first part was tricky with where we were going to stay and who we were going to see when, I guess that’s the trouble when you are dealing with divorced parents.  I did get some time to have fun and some time to relax.

Now we are home and the reality of my class coming up hasn’t fully hit me yet. I have a class starting on the 21st. Now I was thinking that these next few weeks are going to be great. I am not going to have to do anything school wise and I can work some and play some and start actually cleaning out some rooms for our move (God only knows where) in May/June. However, I look up the class yesterday and I see that I need to read four books and write 2/ 600-word essays about two of the books that I read.

This class is a VERY intensive course.  We meet for four days — three blocks a day for three hours each block.  I don’t think it will be very exciting.  Then by the middle of February we need to have a 15-page paper written.  I do not want that paper to carry over into the next semester.

Today is Logan and Daddy day– this tradition started while I was on internship.  To make sure I had quality time with my son I would keep him home from Day Care on my Days off.  We would go swimming at the YMCA and then have pizza for lunch and then just hang out.  Today we are playing video games, going to the library at the seminary and perhaps getting some pizza somewhere.

There is so much I want to talk about – Roger Clemens, the voting in Iowa, and maybe even a little NFL playoffs but Logan wants a new race car to play with on Need for Speed.

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