Rising Dough and Wine

So here it is, a Wednesday night, the only night I have in during this particular work week, and I'm waiting for bread dough to rise and drinking a glass of merlot. A perfect time to update my blog!

I can hardly believe I've already been here for a month. I've been settling in well, getting used to work, getting settled in my yoga studio, figuring out the best times to go to the grocery store in my new schedule, all sorts of things like that.

I preached my first sermon here a couple of weeks ago. At the Saturday night service I was wearing an alb, and I was a little warm, but once I was done preaching, I had been so anxious that I was literally dripping sweat off my nose. I took a moment to duck out of the sanctuary during the hymn right after the sermon and wipe off my face. My sermon was pretty good. At the beginning of the week I was writing it I was okay with it, then by the end of the week I hated it, but once I put it down for a day and practiced it on Saturday before worship I thought it might actually be something worth saying again. I can only hope that my preaching will improve now that I'll have a chance to practice so regularly.

This past weekend was a different experience all together, because Dan was gone for the weekend getting married. That meant that I was running the show and making sure things went smoothly during worship. We had a guest preacher, but I had the chance to give the announcements and lead worship. I find I'm getting more comfortable, and I always find that leading worship makes me feel such joy, so it's always something I look forward to.

I've begun visiting members of the congregation in their homes so that I can get to know them better. I know it's a good idea to get to know people I'll be working with over the year, but part of me is terrified every time I drive to a new person's house to spend an hour with them. They are all incredibly kind, and my first visit lasted twice as long as I had intended! Even though I'll probably be scared as I walk into each house in the next couple of months, I'm glad it's something I'm doing.

This week has been quiet at work, but I think that's because everything starts up next week. Starting next Wednesday I'll probably be at the church from 5 to 9 in the evening. Just like I grew up doing. It'll be busy, but it will be good too. I'll get to sing Holden Evening Prayer every week and I'll get a chance to teach confirmation and high school, two places I think I have a lot of learning to do. My first lesson for the confirmation class in a few weeks is "Is the Bible True?" Should be a great way to get started.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Iowa state fair. I ate food on a stick - my favorite being a peanut butter ice cream sandwich covered in chocolate on a stick - and I had deep fried cheese curds, which seemed appropriately Midwestern. It was a great day, especially because I got to meet several baby animals and several larger ones. It was great, and we walked five miles! I was certainly tired the day after that.

I've also been getting more involved in the yoga studio across the street from me. I love it there, because it has a very personal feel. The owner teaches most of the classes I take and she learned my name after my first visit. I've taken a couple of private lessons with her, and they have been amazing, because I get to know my body so well. I've been playing around with backbends, because they can be really helpful for lifting the spirits when I'm dealing with depression. They won't ever replace my antidepressants, but they're a wonderful addition, and they make me feel great joy. It's amazing, now that I'm working at a regular job, rather than being a student, I actually have time to work out in a way that I haven't before, I think I'll manage to exercise four times this week!

The best news is that this weekend is Labor Day weekend, and Silas is coming up for a visit! We have plans to cook dinner for a friend who lives in town, to go try out a corn maze, and of course I'll bring him to church where all the wonderful church ladies can fawn over him. I'm so excited to have him come, I've been missing him since I moved up here. It's going to be a good Labor Day weekend.

I have more I could share, but my bread is just about done rising, and this is already pretty long, so there will be more soon!

May the peace of God be with you all.

The Start of a New Semester

So here I go again, a brand new semester, and I am going to make an effort to write here more often. I actually really miss it. Since I last wrote, I've done Christmas and New Years at home, come back to Ohio, taken a class on Emotional Intelligence, and jumped both feet in to this semester of classes and work.

Christmas was wonderful, full of time with friends and loved ones, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I got to reconnect with a few of my friends in Texas, Kevin and Amy were able to come up for Christmas and stay for three whole days, and Silas visited for New Years, and we made our regular New Years date at Fearings in Dallas.

I drove back with my Mom and George, both of whom make great travel companions. Other than getting stressed out by the rain and the dark the first night and stopping early, the drive was nice, and it was lovely to have Mom along to keep me company. George was glad to be back in his apartment where no other animals live.

I spent three weeks in a class on emotional intelligence, which was fascinating, but exhausting. It was a class where we spent a lot of time learning about ourselves and how we lead. I learned a lot about myself, but it was also a lot like counseling for three hours a day every day. I ended up taking several long naps over my J-term.

I also spent that time being the J-term sacristan, which was a nice way to ease back into my job. We had worship services each day, but they were very simple, and a lot of wonderful people helped to create and lead the worships. I still love planning and executing worship in any form, so doing it in this smaller way was lovely.

Then after a week off, I jumped into the semester full swing. It's almost hard to believe that I have only had two days of my regular spring classes. We began with a communion service, which I loved getting ready. There's something about the happy chaos of getting a large service set up and running that just makes me feel in my element. Read into that about me what you will. Then my I-group began planning our own week of worship services for the end of the month. Then I took a mile and a half walk with a couple of friends, ate lunch while I played fetch with George, and finally went to my first class.

I began my semester with a class called Hermenutics for Preaching, which I am excited to be in. We're learning about how a preacher goes about reading the Bible and telling a congregation how it applies to them today. Seems like an easy question, but it's deeper than it appears, and I think I'm going to learn a lot in that class.

Thursday introduced me to four more of my classes. Care of Souls will help me dive into pastoral care, something that is really important to my forming pastoral identity. Once again, there is so much I can learn from there. Then I went to New Testament 2, covering the New Testament after Acts, and it's going to be a tough class, but I think worthwhile. And the professor is fantastic. Next was Psalms, which I think will be fascinating. I have always loved the Psalms, but I think this class will help me to really engage with the poetry of them and be able to use them more in my future work. I finished the evening with Spanish. I'm excited to be back in Spanish this semester, and I'll be taking Spanish three.

Speaking of speaking languages I don't know well. This Monday, we're putting on our first Spanish/English bilingual morning prayer service, and I've been asked to be the Spanish leader! Apparently some people think I have a decent enough grasp of the language to read and lead at the same time.

Then comes this weekend (I know, half this blog is covering four days). Yesterday I spent a day doing worship planning and getting prepared for interviewing with internship supervisors. Oh yeah, in just over a month I should know where I'm going to be spending my next year. On the subject of internship I oscillate between terrified and excited, so I'm reading the applications from all the churches and being as organized as I can in an effort to remain more often on the excited side of things. I meet with supervisors at the end of the month, and I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to actually talk with the pastors and get a feel for them.

Then today I began my day teaching children about the fifth and sixth commandments of the big ten. You shall not murder and you shall not commit adultery. People say that you really know a subject when you can teach it to a child, and I have to say I definitely spent more time than before thinking on these two and how it might be best to teach them to 11 and 12 year olds. This was confirmation, and the class actually went really well, despite several giggles that ensued. I spent the afternoon getting ready for church tomorrow, which is going to be a bit more complex than normal. Tomorrow is the first time that I will preach the same sermon at three different services, so obviously I had to write a sermon, and because one of the pastors is out of town, I'll be doing everything for one of the services. One nice thing is that our motto there is basically "if you make mistakes, it's okay, worship will still happen and God still loves you"

Well, that's probably enough of an update for now. Thanks if you've stuck with my through this whole post! I'll keep you up to date about all I'm learning and doing, and next week I'll even tell you about one more class I'm enrolled in that doesn't meet until Monday!

Peace be with you all.

Advent Time!

It looks like my blog is becoming more monthly than weekly! Maybe next semester I'll be able to balance my time a bit differently, but I certainly have been busy!

My semester is winding down to a close now, with just three more classes for me to attend and three more papers and one more sermon for me to finish! It's been a crazy busy semester, but it has been wonderful.

It's the advent season now, which I absolutely love! I love moving into blue instead of green, and I love getting ready for Christmas. It's cold up here, and this whole season just makes me incredibly happy. I'll be driving back to Texas next week, and it probably won't be cold enough for my taste, but I'm really looking forward to being home and getting started on all our family Christmas traditions, which I insist on every year. I'm looking forward to a chance to preach again at Abiding Grace, and I'm looking forward to both Kevin and Amy coming in for Christmas day. It'll be great to have a bunch of people home and then to help cook Christmas dinner. Silas will come down before Christmas for a weekend and then will come in for New Years, like he always does, and it'll be wonderful to see him so much this month.

As I finish one semester here, I'm already thinking about next semester and next year! I am looking forward to all of my classes next semester, and I've already begun the process leading to internship. I had my pre-internship meeting this morning, and I am so excited about my prospects for next year. I can hardly wait until I actually know where I'm going to be spending the year.

Thanksgiving this year was great, although a pretty full week. I got home the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and my family from Birmingham came in the day after. Then the next day I ran up to Oklahoma City to spend some time with Silas, and we went to Stillwater to see a friend in The Messiah and spend some time in the town where we met. It was an absolutely wonderful weekend. Then my parents, grandma, and I went down to Austin to see Kevin and Amy and had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Plenty of food and plenty of time to spend together. Then I left for Columbus at 3:30 on Tuesday morning, so I could make my 5am flight out of town. It was a long travel day, but I got back in time for meetings and classes. Now I have less than a week here to finish up before I drive home next Wednesday! Crazy busy end of the semester.

I have so many craft projects in the works for Chrsitmas presents and just because I want to get a few things finished, so I actually plan on spending most of Saturday at my sewing machiene. I love finding time to make things in my busy schedule, and I love having something I've finished that I can use or give to someone else to use.

For now, I'm off to the famous (at least here) Common Meal, and then off to maybe actually get my apartment to a state that I wouldn't mind showing to others!

Peace be with you all this Advent season.

Midterms!

So as of today, I am offially halfway through this semester. The time has really flown, but it always seems to when I'm in school.

This last week was crazy, as I had a paper of some sort due in each of my classes. It ended up being the kind of week where I finished everything on the day it was due, which is not my favorite style of working. This week I wrote about God's wrath in Amos, mission in a pluralistic society, the Augsburg Confession, feminist understandings of sin, and I wrote and preached my first sermon for preaching class. All of the assignments went well, although my favorites were definitely the paper about sin and the sermon about a text I really didn't want to preach on. 

It turns out sin is really interesting when you think about it, and a lot of people have given it some thought. My understanding it better makes my confessions every week so much more meaningful, and I am actually able to find grace a lot easier. My sermon was on Acts 15:12-21, which, paraphrased, says Paul and Barnabas told the Jewish Church that God was acting among the Gentiles. The Jewish Church was confused. The Jewish Church decided the Gentiles could be part of the Church without circumcision. I had a hard time finding the grace of God in that text, but it finally came out. I may be able to get the video of the sermon soon, if anyone would like to see it. I thought it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. 

Now that midterms are over, it is time for my fall break. The best part of this is a five day vacation in Oklahoma City, spending some time with Silas. Our anniversary is next weekend, and I'm excited about being with him for it. I'm also excited about not having any schoolwork to do over the five days. 

But first, I have to get through tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon is my Endorsement Interview, which is the next step in the candidacy process. Most of my classmates went through that today, but my turn is tomorrow, when all of my panel can be there. I am quite excited that Cheryl, my candidacy contact, will be flying up to be at the interview in person, and I am looking forward to getting caught up with her. I am not too worried about the interview, and I'm hoping that peace remains. I think the interview will be a good experience, and I'm reasonably certain that I will be approved for endorsement. We'll see tomorrow! 

Tonight I went to the church council meeting at All Saints as part of my MIC this year. It's really great to go to these, as I begin to see how a church runs itself, even if that does mean listening to a half-hour conversation about heating systems. I'm still really enjoying my time here and everything I'm learning through school and through All Saints. I can hardly wait to see what the second half of the semester brings. But first, I'm going on vacation.

Many Worships

This semester is certainly keeping me busy!  A lot has happened since I last wrote, which is why this blog is so late.

Two weekends ago I drove down to Nashville to meet my parents and trade cars with them. I was glad to have my car back after a month, and the drive was actually fairly pleasant. I listened to a book on tape while I was driving, and I enjoyed seeing the trees which were turning for fall. My parents had a longer drive, and I know doing it two days in a row was rough, so I am very grateful to them for meeting with me there.

My classes this semester are still going fantastically, and it's funny that they are not my biggest concern most of the time. Part of that is probably because I really enjoy them, so I'm comfortable with the time I do spend on them, and the other part is that I simply have so many other things going on. In preaching class, I'll be giving my first sermon in just over a week, and I'm looking forward to it, despite the fact that I'm struggling with the text. Here's praying that the Holy Spirit will make an intervention in time. (from my discussions with other preachers, this is a frequent prayer)

Aside from my schoolwork, my biggest commitment continues to be my job as sacristan. I love nearly every minute of it, and I think I'm learning a lot in the job. Last week was Trinity Days, which meant a lot of work for a beautiful worship service. I may have sent nearly 100 emails on Monday alone. I finished my twelve yard long banners in time, and they added beautifully to Gloria Dei. We had a lovely eucharist service on Wednesday put on by Bexley Hall, which made me think back to my times at Saint Andrews in college. I was a crucifer and lector for that service, and I was honored to be asked to help lead. Thursday we had a service that included a fire bowl - my first experience with that - and it turned out wonderfully. It always makes me happy as a sacristan when I plan and plan and then the opening song begins and everyone walks out in the procession, and then I cannot do anything more. When it all goes well, as it always does, I am proud to have been a part of that work.

After the busy-ness of the Trinity days worship, I was able to just enjoy the rest of it. We had a lecture about Pentecostalism for our main lecture, and it was really interesting to consider a tradition so different from ours and see what there may be to learn from that. I also went to the student/alumni football game and got some knitting done. Thursday evening, I was invited by my friend Mechelle to participate in the rituals of Rosh Hashana which was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Altogether, I got to experience a lot of faith over the weekend!

On Sunday, I was finally able to sit down with Bonnie, my MIC supervisor, over lunch and plan out my year at All Saints. I will preach several times, teach sixth grade confirmation, attend church council meetings, continue to assist at worship, and begin a pastoral care relationship with one of the congregants there. I am looking forward to all of this, although I am also a little nervous. I hope that I will continue to be able to grow in my abilities as a pastor during this year here.

This week, I'm feeling pretty well on my feet, and I'm looking forward to next week as an ease in my time as sacristan, since it will be Bexley Hall's worship week the whole week. And then the week after that is fall break, which is hard to imagine! That will be an especially good week, as I will be having my endorsement interview on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I will be heading to Oklahoma to spend some time with Silas, including celebrating our third-year anniversary! I cannot wait for that.

It's a busy semester, but it is full of good things, and I am looking forward to the rest of it! I'll write here again soon.

Christmas Break

So I was right about being sporadic in my blog writing over Christmas break. I've been quite busy, and I've had a cold, so I spent a solid week mainly laying on my couch feeling like a lazy bum.

It's been a busy Christmas with much traveling and family. I went with my parents to visit all of my family on my mom's side in Tulsa the weekend before Christmas. Tulsa had had an ice storm, but the roads were fine. It was actually fascinating to look at the trees and all the icicles. I know it's bad for the trees, but they were beautiful encased in ice. I had a very good time with my family. We exchanged small gifts and had a big Christmas dinner. It was nice to see cousins that I don't see very often and catch up with them. I also hand washed all the dishes from the sixteen person dinner, which I actually enjoyed doing and catching up with my aunts and cousins while I did it. I was also able to read on the way there and back by listening to a book on tape, since I can't actually read a book in the car without getting nauseous.

When we got back I celebrated my parents 32nd anniversary with them. I've always loved that their anniversary is two days before Christmas, so it's always been part of my Christmas celebration. Unfortunately, right after that is when I came down with my cold. It hit me pretty quickly and pretty hard, and I was sad that it happened just before Christmas Eve when my mom and I were planning on some Christmas cooking. I was basically kicked out of the kitchen, so I just had to talk with my mom while she baked cookies and got Christmas breakfast ready.

On Christmas Eve we went to church for a service at 6, and I was sad that I wasn't able to sing along with all the hymns. But it was still a lovely service, and I managed to sing Silent Night at about a tenor to finish the service. Then my brother came in and we decorated Christmas cookies. I had my own plate of cookies that I decorated and ate over the next few days in an attempt to not get my family sick.

Christmas was fantastic. I got up first and came downstairs and sat on the couch by the lit Christmas tree and read for awhile before everyone else woke up. Then as my family got up and came out to the living room, we ate our traditional breakfast and Kevin and I opened our stockings. Santa brought me a duck shaped tea infuser this year, which floats on top of my teacup while it makes tea. It is adorable, and I can't wait to use it on cold Ohio nights.

I have always sat by the tree on Christmas and passed out gifts, and this year was no exception, despite my cold. Usually I also reorganize the gifts under the tree leading up to Christmas so there will be a nice order to passing out gifts. I hadn't done that this year, but I was still trying to be even in passing out gifts to my parents, Kevin, and myself. But then I quickly realized that Kevin had many more gifts than me. Of course, that was because he didn't want anything big and I had asked for a tablet this year. I finally got to open a Samsung Galaxy Note, which I really enjoy and I'll use a lot while I'm in grad school. We spent the rest of the day playing a couple of board games that Kevin had gotten and then going to my Aunt's house for Christmas dinner. Then we sent Kevin back, because he had to work, and I went to bed shortly afterward.

Last Sunday, the Sunday after Christmas I preached my second sermon ever, to my home church. I was nervous, but I also felt more prepared than before, and when it came to actually delivering the sermon, I felt really good about it. I'm pleased that I've been able to improve over my last sermon and I'm looking forward to getting even more practice this next year.

I have also interviewed at both Children's hospital and Parkland hospital here in Dallas for my summer of Clinical Pastoral Education this summer. I will be working as a hospital chaplain for ten weeks this summer, and I'm sure it'll be an experience. Especially at one of these hospitals. The interviews went great, though, and I am actually looking forward to what I'll learn over the summer.

Other than that, I've been running around with my mom and having a good time in Grapevine, and now I am getting ready to head back to Ohio. I'll fly back tomorrow, and then leave on Sunday for a class in Iowa. It should be a great class, all about parish ministry, which I think I will love. Then I'll have a couple of weeks off in Ohio before I start my second full semester at Trinity!

Wish me luck.