A Full Week

Whew, it has been a thoroughly busy week, and it's taken me most of the weekend just to recover from it. This week when I feel asleep in my classes, I actually had a decent reason for it!

This past week was my i-group's worship week, which somehow made me feel more involved in worship than I am as a sacristan. My i-group planned and executed four worship services, including one with a great litany and one that took place outdoors! It was certainly cold, but everything went off fairly well. If that had been all taking up my time then it would have been a nice enough week.

But instead, I also went through ten interviews with potential internship supervisors and an hour and a half of mingling with those same supervisors in a meet and greet. Spending that much time extraverting and being anxious about the results of these conversations pretty much wiped me out entirely.

As tiring as they were, the interviews were also very interesting. Counting one that took place a week earlier, I interviewed with eleven different potential supervisors. I found myself continually surprised in the conversations and I think I learned quite a bit about myself and my pastoral identity through them. I also definitely formed preferences for where I end up spending my next year, but I will wait to share until I find out where that will be in a couple of weeks. Waiting to find out is going to be a pretty difficult experience in itself! I'm anxious to begin to make plans for moving and thinking about where I'm going to be.

Alongside spending all of my time executing worship and interviewing with supervisors I actually had my normal week of classes and work! I can't believe how far I've gotten into the semester already. I'm enjoying all of my classes, and I find myself really looking forward to each of them. They are all quite different. New Testament requires the most intellectual work, which I find enjoyable, Church and Sacraments is full of interesting discussions of theology of the church, Preaching is full of similarly fascinating discussions about how one actually goes about interpreting the Bible for a congregation, Psalms is an interesting exploration of different types of psalms every day, and Care of Souls reminds me and teaches me about relational ministry. Then for fun I go speak a little Spanish every now and again. I'm also using the Spanish translation of the Harry Potter series as my fun reading when I need a break. I like keeping up my skills with something I find enjoyable like Harry Potter.

So, I'm definitely keeping busy. This week will be a little easier, because another i-group is in charge of worship, which means that I will actually have less than normal to do. It's snowing like crazy outside today, so I'm staying in for the day, which may mean a very early morning grocery run for me tomorrow.

In the hope that Spring will come soon,
Kathryn

Reading and the Cold

So I may or may not be writing this to put off reading for school just a little bit longer. However, that reading will get done in plenty of time too - it is Friday after all!

It has been a good past couple of weeks. And about half the time I even don't feel incredibly behind. Two weeks ago I did preach my first sermon at a church that wasn't my home church, and I preached it three times in a row! That was a decidedly interesting experience, because the sermon changed somewhat form time to time, and I'm pretty sure the people who came to the late service got the best rendition. After my full day I came home and ended up passing out until evening. 

That evening, a couple of my friends who graduated from Trinity last year, Russ and Sarah, came into town, so I was pleased that I was able to wake up from my long nap in time to go to dinner with them. I got to spend time with them on Monday night too, and it was great to see them again and catch up with everything going on in their lives beyond seminary. 

I finally attended my final first class, which was Church and Sacraments. It is a systematic theology option, where I'll learn both about what it means to be the church, and what we believe about the sacraments. We only meet once a week, which means I have a lot of reading to do in between every week, but I love the class already, and I'm excited to see what comes of it. My week after that went quite smoothly, getting into the swing of my classes, and trying to sort out exactly how much time I'm going to have to spend reading every day (it's a lot).

Then this past weekend, Silas came into town to visit and celebrate valentines day with me! Of course a wicked winter decided to join him, which was a bit of a shame. I drove in near white-out conditions to pick him up from the airport, which is an experience I'd be okay never having again in my life. Saturday night we went out for a lovely dinner and all was well until I slipped and fell in the skating rink that was the parking lot on our way back to my car. I wasn't hurt badly, so it was mostly comical, especially when I nearly brought Silas down with me while he was trying to help me up! 

Sunday we spent most of the day cooking proper Texas chili to share with my friends from the north who don't understand why I'm always a little disappointed when I try chili here. We made it with ancho chilies, dark beer, stew beef, and bacon, and it turned out amazingly. When I tried it, I kissed Silas and told him I loved him even more than I had before. We had a great dinner and evening with my friends, and it was lovely to eat something so warm when it was so cold outside. 

On Monday we did venture out a bit, but the cold kept us from taking any long walks. That day it snowed more, so after going to see a movie, Silas introduced me to snow ice cream, which is something I had never heard of before. It was a fun thing to do with all the snow we were getting. 

My weekend with Silas was absolutely wonderful, and during his visit I had another interesting experience. There was one internship supervisor in town early this week, and I had not intended on interviewing with him. However, he read my information and asked to have a meeting with me. We talked for an hour and I found I was really pleasantly surprised by the supervisor and the church. It's now a place that I think I might be happy at for internship and that I'm keeping in mind. All of the rest of the interviews will take place this next week, and I have nine more to go! I'm really excited about the whole process and excited and anxious about where God will send me. 

This week I also got to spend some time babysitting an infant for the first time, and it was her first time having a babysitter! We had a good time together, and it's nice to take a break from school to spend time with a baby every once and awhile. I did read her a few psalms out loud, which she seemed to enjoy. Being the daughter of two pastors to be, I'm sure she'll be hearing things like that plenty. 

Finally, this morning I had my first ever experience with a dead car battery. Luckily, my entire apartment complex is full of people I know, so I was able to get a jump and my car came right back to life. You know it's too cold out when the cold is draining your car battery! I'm planning on staying inside as much as possible until it warms up again! 

This weekend my plan is to spend my time reading and working on a text critical study and translation of the Bible passage I'm working on in New Testament. I think this semester is going to keep me plenty busy! I still love all my classes though, and I think I'm getting quite good at reading quickly, so that I understand enough without having to take in every word deeply. It's the only way to get through. 

Now off to read Who is the Church? and a book about Hermenutics!

Peace be with you all. 

First Full Week of Classes

So I'm writing this blog a little earlier than normal, because the reward for my first week of classes is a visit from Silas! Because of that I intend on being a bit busy this weekend.

I've officially finished my first week of classes here at Trinity, and it has been a bit of a roller-coaster. My Mondays are long, as I try to get here for morning prayer at 7:30, then I work, have class, and then choir, which ends at 8:15. My classes that day are Race Ethnicity and Religion and Person in Ministry. I think Race Ethnicity and Religion is going to be a fascinating class as we discuss what race and racism looks like in our world today and how religious institutions should respond to it. I still haven't decided as much about Person in Ministry. I think it will be a useful class in beginning to teach me basic skills I'll need as a pastor, and the reading should be interesting, but so far we've mainly only gone over the syllabus, so we haven't delved much into the actual subject.

On Tuesdays I have my two favorite classes - New Testament 1 and Church History 1. Both of my teachers are fantastic and I thoroughly enjoy the subjects. Our books for those classes are really interesting too, so I won't mind getting the reading done. The New Testament course will only cover the Gospels and Acts, and I'll learn the rest of the New Testament in the spring of my Middler year (quite a ways from now, it seems). Church History 1 covers the beginnings of the church to just before the Reformation, and while I know a fair bit about the first couple of centuries from a religion class I took at OSU, I'm looking forward to learning more about the rest of the intervening time.

My one other class this session is Faith Seeking Understanding, and I think it will be an interesting course that will have me better understand both my own faith and other views on faith. Then during Session 2 I will take teaching adults, because I think I could learn a lot from that class.

I'm now working regularly at the library (I'm writing this from the circulation desk computer) which is great because I have some time to work on my reading or homework, but I also love being around the books and roaming through the stacks. And it's a good place to meet people, because I see everyone who comes in while I'm working, and unlike my undergrad the library is a place nearly everybody goes and most people do not try to avoid.

Along with my school and work things, I have been working on bringing all the other aspects in my life into balance this week. That is not always easy, and I've had some emotional highs and lows, but I'm beginning to find time for what's important and not give too much time or energy to any one thing. I'm still finding time to hang out with friends, and also trying to find time to be active, which is one of the more difficult things. This afternoon I'm mixing the two - my friend Erica and I are going to do some yoga together, because we both love it. Then there are also plenty of opportunities to gather with the community, including the Common Meal at Bexley Hall on Thursday nights and a bonfire in the seminary courtyard on Friday nights.

All told, I am keeping plenty busy and I haven't even quite finished adding everything to my schedule. I am going to start doing some spiritual direction here. This is a good place for it because it's quite cheap and this is a good time in my life to do spiritual direction. I'm trying to find one more job to add just a few hours onto my work schedule and then I think I'll be busy enough. I also officially took out my year loan this week, and it ended up being less than I expected, which was nice. That was due in part to a Munderloh scholarship I just found out I received. I'm hoping to have even more scholarships next year, leading to fewer loans. The less debt I accumulate the better.

Now for the rest of the morning, I am going to start on my readings and assignments. I've made up my calendar for the semester, and the workload doesn't look too bad, but better to be ahead of things than behind.

Kathryn