Motley Crew

This photo, if you hadn't guessed it, depicts our flag football team (the image is borrowed from the school website at www.tesm.edu). We ended up going 2-1 in the Luther Bowl last week, and two of our players got stitches. Thankfully, they're healing up quickly.

A friend of mine recently described this photo as a motley crew. Interestingly enough, my Old Testament professor had said just a few days prior that it's remarkable that God uses people in his plans, especially a "motley crew" like the people in our class.

She added, "And if you don’t think you’re a motley crew, you should be up here and see what I see."

True dat.

3 Thanksgivings to God:

* For the ability of the human mind to absorb Greek verb endings
* For this day of sobriety
* For putting a song into my heart

3 Prayers:

* For God's help in glorifying him through my studies
* For complete healing for all of the football players who were hurt on Saturday
* That love for Christ may abound in all who call on his name

Updates!

It's been a long time since I've written, partly because I kept trying to load some photographs and failing. I am now willing to concede temporary defeat, and I'm sending a text update. (But someday, I will find a way to post pictures from the All Soul's Day costume party).

It's a little over partway through the first semester. Here are a few notes on what we've learned so far:

1. Greek: I can now read Biblical Greek on a first to second grade level. Whoo-hoo!

2. Church History: I can tell you Protestants and Catholics really didn't like one another during the 1500s, but everyone hated the Anabaptists. (Insert friendly shout-out to Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary here).

3. Biblical Interpretation: I am learning to do sentence flows -- basically, split verses of Scripture into clauses and list whether they're subordinating or coordinating. It seems my elementary school grammar teacher is vindicated -- I really did need to learn this stuff.

4. Old Testament: The prophetic books in the Old Testament are longer than the entire New Testament, but many Christians don't read them. And, the prophets really were saying more than just, "Repent!" But, they were pretty weird.

5. Spiritual Formation: We have learned about confession, fasting, sabbath-keeping, study, worship, prayer, etc. I've been fighting the feeling that I should be practicing all of the spiritual disciplines in existence. At the same time.

All joking aside, the semester is going very well. I'm learning tons -- more than I can process at the moment, in all honesty. And, humor is proving to be very important. As is the ukulele.

Speaking of humor, we had a pep rally at Trinity today for the flag football team, the Kneelers (yeah, we're in Steelers country here in Ambridge). The co-ed team (whose captains coerced me into playing) is going to compete in the "Luther Bowl" on Saturday in Gettysburg against a bunch of other seminaries. The pep rally was...well, let me share a sample of one of the cheers from today:

A-N-G-L-I-C - Anglican!
A-N-G-L-I-C - We're here to win!
A-N-G-L-I-C - Christ conquered sin!
A-N-G-L-I-C - Kneelers! Fight! Win!

Anyway. You get the idea.

3 Thanksgivings:

* For the birth of Aubrey, my great-niece, at the end of October
* For continuing good health and energy to pursue my studies
* For friendships, both here and back in San Joaquin

3 Prayers:

* For lowered stress levels at Trinity as finals get closer
* For financial provision for the school
* For all of those in the Diocese of San Joaquin, especially those in leadership, as we approach convention in December.

Community

I haven't been imagining it. The junior class likes to party.

Oh, I don't mean in an "Animal House" kind of way. Our larger parties tend to include modified Evening Prayer or guitar-driven praise singalongs. But we do, as a whole, spend a lot of outside time hanging around one another...at small group potlucks, at sprawling Mexican food themed parties, at little kid birthday parties.

Besides liking parties, we're an ornery lot. Each week, we've taken to asking our longsuffering church history professor at least one impossibly divisive question.

For instance, one of my classmates -- completely deadpan -- asked this question during the final two minutes of a three-hour class last Tuesday, "Dr. Witt, was Mary really a perpetual virgin?" We've also asked him about infant baptism and some aspects of transubstantiation. I'm not sure what we'll come up with tomorrow.

It's a favorite phrase of one of our deans at Trinity to say, "It's a school, it's a school, it's a school." At a basic level, we can expect to leave in three years with our heads crammed full of Hebrew and systematic theology. But there's a lot more that happens here, and it's hard to really understand exactly how this "formation" thing works -- how we're going to emerge as pastors or teachers or whatever God's called us to be.

I think community is a big part of the process. As we pray and study and work and party and tease our professors together, I think (I pray) that God will continue to use us to form one another into what he wishes us to be. And isn't this one of the beauties of any Christian community? Isn't it one of the things I love about parishes?

Of course, there are dangers in community. Divisions. Jealousy. Pride. Anger. Unforgiveness. Impatience. Selfishness. It wasn't new for the believers in Corinth when Paul was writing to them. It's not new now.

It always seems to come down to love. When we're wounded by the broken places within our brothers and sisters -- a day that inevitably comes -- may the Holy Spirit empower us to love all the more.

3 Thanksgivings

1. For God's financial provision for the friend I mentioned in the last post
2. For fall leaves
3. For the bonds of community

3 Prayers

1. That the love of Christ will rule our hearts as we continue to form bonds of community here
2. For our professors -- for wisdom, energy and peace
3. For God's help in discernment

A Crunch (ain't talking about the sound fall leaves make)

This week presents the first of many time crunches for the folks in our class, so I'm keeping this blog entry short. I've seen two friends in the library today looking mildly freaked out and muttering about impending deadlines for this or that.

I know what they're saying. My brain is kind of swimming in a stew of second aorist Greek verbs, semantic meanings of "people" from a chapter in Acts, and Christological heresies.

On a slightly less academic note, I'm making progress toward learning the chords on ukulele to play "Where is my Hairbrush?" from VeggieTales. My professor Rod Whitacre, who is to blame for introducing me to the uke, would call this going to my "Happy Place."

3 Prayers:

* For energy and focus for us in our studies
* For my friend Keith, who lost his dad to cancer Sunday
* For financial provision for one of my classmates, who's in a real bind

3 Thanksgivings:

* For being blessed with a housemate who loves baking cookies
* For being blessed with a housemate who loves playing the violin
* For my Happy Place

Why you need to know about Asmara

This week, Trinity had the honor of playing host to Archbishop Mouneer Anis from the Diocese of Egypt. He stopped by the school on his way to deliver an address to the House of Bishops in New Orleans.

His gracious address, by the way, is well worth reading. You can read it by going here: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/6132/

After Archbishop Anis celebrated the Eucharist with us, he told us about the Christians in his Diocese. The thing that struck me most during his talk (and there were a lot of things that struck me) was this: in the area known as Asmara, Christians get arrested for going to church. There are about 1,500 believers in jail now. Often, they're arrested when they walk out of their parishes after worship.

Archbishop Anis asked us to pray for Asmara. I'd like to ask you to do the same.

3 Prayers:

* For our brothers and sisters in Asmara, that they would not lose heart
* For the Lord to raise up lay and ordained leaders in the Diocese of Egypt
* For an anointing on Archbishop Anis

3 Thanksgivings:

* For the faithful witness of past and present Christians in North Africa
* For a week of beautiful weather in Ambridge
* For developing friendships here

That Pesky Fourth Commandment

Do you ever walk into a situation while asking yourself in bewilderment, "How exactly did I get myself into this?" I kind of felt that way this weekend. At first.

On Friday night, I found myself in a retreat center in Youngstown, Ohio, preparing to spend 24 hours with a few dozen people who serve in prayer-related ministries at a Pittsburgh church I've never attended. I'd been invited to the 24-hour retreat on Thursday night by a friend of mine from Trinity. I'd already said no to a bunch of other get-togethers on Friday night, but against my better judgment (or at least, against the Homework Nazi yelling inside my head), I said yes to this one.

So, there I was. I sat down in a room with a bunch of pleasant-looking folks, wondering what the retreat theme was. Then the speaker stood, and I found out: It was about keeping the Sabbath.

That's when all the pieces fell into place, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. I felt like God had just let me in on the joke.

For months, I've been sensing God pushing me toward incorporating more listening, silence, and rest into my life. Roughly a week ago, my spiritual director strongly suggested that I work to observe the Sabbath while I'm in school (and I agreed).

The retreat was both refreshing and helpful, being designed to help ministers understand Sabbath through studying it in scripture and through living it for 24 hours.

So that's how, without knowing it, I ended up exactly where I needed to be on Friday night. Thanks be to God.

3 Thanksgivings:

* For the birth this weekend of my fellow junior Fred's new daughter
* For Sarah's dramatic improvement in health since last week
* That we belong to the Lord of the Sabbath.

3 Prayers (selected this week from prayers for Ember Days in the Book of Common Prayer, pages 205-206):

* For those to be ordained
* For the choice of fit persons for the ministry
* For all Christians in their vocation

Despite "Syllabus Shock," Seminarians Survive First Week of Classes

Our Dean of Students cornered me yesterday after Morning Prayer and cheerfully asked how the week was going. Specifically, she asked if syllabus shock had set in yet.

I don't recall ever really hearing the term "syllabus shock" until a friend of mine enrolled in a different seminary mentioned it some weeks ago. I believe she said something like, "Just wait until syllabus shock sets in."

From what I can gather, syllabus shock results when a student reads about the semester's coming attractions and realizes:

1. How many pages she'll be reading
2. How many pages she'll be writing
3. How many days are in the semester

Anyway, I'd been imagining an unpleasant sensation kind of like an electrical jolt with all this "shock" talk, but the effect has been more like the beginnings of a Tule fog -- it rolls in, gets thick, and suddenly you say to yourself, "Uh oh."

None of this comes as a surprise. Seminary is hard work, and I think it's going to be work that I love.

3 Prayer Requests:

* For the families of seminarians who are trying to adjust to Ambridge -- especially children
* For healing for my housemate Sarah, who's been sick since she arrived
* For any seminarian who's freaking out this week because of "syllabus shock," including our brothers and sisters in The Schools of San Joaquin, Nashotah House and Asbury Theological Seminary.

3 Thanksgivings:

* For the birth of my classmate Jon's new child
* For common prayer -- the ability to gather as a family to praise and petition our Father
* For what Jesus did on the cross, which made such prayer possible

God Stories

As an Anglican seminary rooted in the evangelical tradition, Trinity has a long-established custom of asking new students to give their testimonies during orientation. The questions: either 1. describe how you came to faith in Christ or 2. how you came to Trinity.

For the Class of 2010 (that's mine), we got to hear most of those stories yesterday and today. They're what one of my friends calls "God stories."

This was, by far, the coolest part of orientation. We listened to about two dozen people describe God's graceful movement in lives scattered from the Carolinas to Alaska. I think of them as vignettes fit within the glorious story of redemption that God has written. Is writing. Will write.

Orientation is over now. Classes begin on Tuesday.

3 Prayer Requests:

* For the faculty, staff and students at Trinity as they begin or resume study
* For guidance in establishing a balance of worship, work and rest
* For God's help in finding a place of worship in this area

3 Thanksgivings:

* For God stories
* For the safe arrival of my two housemates
* For the beginnings of fellowship among the new students

The Time In-Between

My weeks of being a traveler instead of a Fresno newspaper reporter or a Pennsylvania seminary student are ending.

I moved into my new place in Ambridge on Monday (with a lot of help from some Trinity students). I've spent the past several days organizing, scrubbing and generally trying to get the house in decent shape for my two housemates, who'll be moving in next week.

I'm enjoying this time. It's been a combination of slaying monster dust bunnies, searching for grocery stores and getting acquainted with the sounds of a house that's been around a lot longer than I have.

The OT readings in the Daily Office have been heartbreaking this week. The story of David's dysfunctional family doesn't always hit me like it did yesterday. Absalom did all his power to steal his father's crown, but that didn't stop David's anguish when Absalom was slain in battle against the king's forces.

Here's what David did when he heard the news:

"He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: 'O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!'"

I think about all of the parents I've interviewed who have lived through the death (sometimes the murder) of a child. I think that must be one of the greatest pains in the world.

On the Road Again -- but not until Sunday

The Fresno-to-Ambridge move isn't complete yet, but it's close.

I've been hanging out with my family in Ohio for about a week (which has been nice), and the Ambridge domicile will be ready for move-in on Monday. I'm looking forward to being able to see out the back window of my Honda Civic again. It's been crammed with my junk for weeks now.

Meanwhile, I'll share a few things I've learned during my visit here to Appalachian Ohio (a.k.a. the place where I was raised):

1. Did you know that a Burmese python can crush the air out of a grown man's lungs in 11 seconds? I learned this during an educational snake talk at the Athens County Fair. Naturally, the guy telling us this was petting his Burmese python as he said it.

2. Did you know that worms eat corn? ("Corn worms" as it were). I was introduced to them when I began to clean some non-sprayed, garden corn the other day. There were big worms. There were small, white worms. There were black bugs. Ew. My dad intervened, casually shook the critters off, then cut the bad parts of the corn away. Seriously, it was gross. I kind of wish I had a picture of them to post.

3. Did you know how entertaining it is to watch cars smash into one another? I attended a demolition derby at the Athens County Fair. I enjoyed it so much that I attended another one at the Meigs County Fair the next week. I'm not sure exactly what to make of this development.

Anyway. As admittedly fascinating as all this is, I'm kind of ready to study Greek now.

- 30 -

Back in the day, reporters used to type -30- at the end of their news stories. It was shorthand for "The End."

Going to seminary full-time has meant surrendering my press badge, my notebook and the obligation to fire off pointed questions at public officials in the name of the community's right to know. It's a great job, and I got to do it for eight years in Fresno, Bakersfield, Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio.

A lot of people have asked me if it was hard to leave journalism. Honestly? It wasn't. The day I left the Fresno newsroom, my feet where following where my heart had gone long before.

All that said, it doesn't change my love for the business. Below is a portion of a note I sent to my Fresno Bee colleagues on my final day in the office. In a way, it's written to every conscientious journalist who I've worked alongside:


"Dear colleagues,

I'll keep it short because this isn't the Academy Awards. My first inclination is to say, "You guys rock," but I'll attempt to be a little more articulate.

Journalism isn't an easy profession. But it is noble and vital. I believed that the day I started, and I believe it today. I'm proud to have worked alongside this mix of bulldogs, artists, workhounds, innovators, skeptics and storytellers. Please keep being who you are. This business needs you.

Covering Fresno education involves a big gray lump of bureaucracy, flashes of youthful brilliance and devoted teaching, a liberal spritzing of Machiavellian politics, and a dash of bald lunacy. I'll admit it..sometimes, it's been pretty fun. When it hasn't, you guys have helped make up for it. Big time.

If you're ever in the Pittsburgh area, I'll treat you to a horrible and wonderful sandwich that smashes meat, French fries and coleslaw between two slices of bread. Or, a cup of coffee. You know I'm good for that.

God's grace be with you all, my friends.

Christina"

A schedule that's already making me feel sleep-deprived...and happy

I registered for classes the other night on Trinity's website. The fall lineup is as follows:

1. Biblical Interpretation
2. Beginning Greek
3. Foundations in Church History
4. Foundations in Old Testament
5. Spiritual Formation

After finishing, I kind of got a lump in my throat because this seminary thing is for real. Wow.

I visited Trinity in March and knew it was where I was supposed to be. One of my favorite places was the chapel. It was simple brick outside, with a big wooden cross on the wall behind the altar inside.

My last thought and prayer in that room -- before I turned my back to that cross to fly back to Fresno -- was simply this: "God, I'm trusting you to bring me back to this place in the fall."

I spend time with God every day, but I can't wait to meet him in that chapel and say, "I'm here. Thank you."