Greetings both of you:

Overwhelmed is a description I can use of my current feelings.  At this point I am just trying to stay dedicated to the process of homework and class time.  Deb has had some health issues that have kept her from work and us in the ER and doctor's offices.  Classes have been going well so far, but the amount of reading and work outside class is heavier than last year.  One good thing is this year I only have one class with tests, Hebrew and there are two quizes a week in this class.  The rest of the classes are all papers.  I like this concept.  Last year was memorize and regurgitate and this year is read, listen, think, reflect or research.  Greek Readings is eating my lunch with time it takes, especially for a 1 credit hour class.  Hebrew is going pretty good so far.  I don't know if going through Greek last year has me less anxious about it or if it just clicks in my head differently than Greek did.  I co-lead chapel tomorrow in the morning and preach a stewardship sermon in the afternoon for preching class.  The sermon is done, I just need to practice the presentation. 

Normally we go for Internship for a year in our third year, but there are some situations where we can go in our fourth year and finish our book studies in our third year.  That concept has come to mind recently and seems to be gaining some ground in my head.  We will see how the Spirit works with this over the next several months as we have to have our Endorsement interviews and essays done before the end of the year. 

One thing that really has my head working in the background is my Theology class.  Right at the end of class we discussed this concept that God is of other than this world.  Fine, no problem with me.  But to go along with this is the idea God is not of this world.  I asked if that meant that God is not limited to this world, which I totally agree with, but was told no.  God is not of this world, (if I understood the response correctly), if God was of this world God could not be of other than this world.  I still don't understand how that could be and hope to hear more on Friday to back this up, because at this point I am not able to get on board with this concept.  I wonder if this isn't more in our understanding and use of the restrictors of the lead up to the definition.  At this point it is pretty obvious I don't understand something about this statement.  I guess my brain needs some more stretching. 

I have to finish up for Greek Readings in the morning.  God bless you all.  Steve

We have attended all of our classes now.  This is going to be one busy semester.  Enough of the glass half empty stuff.  The new class is here and they seem to be a good class.  I am a mentor and our mentor group has met several times already.  We had lunch together yesterday and talked about challenges.  The seniors are back and they seem to have a good attitude.  I know it must be difficult to come back to the classroom after being in the parish for a year.  They seem to be taking it well.  I haven't seen any attitudes of being to good to do this.  This should be a good year. 
At some point this semester I will be interviewed by two people from the Candidacy Committee and my Student Advisor to determine my suitability for internship.  I have already turned in my 10 page paper addressing the items on this years endorsement essay topics and final input from our CPE Supervisors weighs on their decision.  I am not too worried about this.  I would however like to be able to check it off of the list.  All things in their time. 
Not too much else new.  Greek Readings is giving me fits, but Hebrew so far has not been bad.  But that is only 3 classes into the year long course.  If I understand anything in my theology class I will let you know.  Dr. Yeago talks on a pretty high level.  Sometimes I need a ladder to get up there, so I have to keep one in my book bag.  I can do this considering the one who carried a cross for me.
Blessings to all of you.
Steve

Back to it as a Middler

I guess summer is over when classes start back. I have been playing introvert during the last three weeks. CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) was great. I was a hospital chaplain for 10 weeks in Greenwood SC at Self Regional Hospital. I can’t say enough good things about Self and the program. The people were great and the experience was a fantastic learning experience. The goal of this, in my mind, was to expose us to all these different ministry situations and see what that brought up in us. Once we identify something, and believe me I can’t imagine anyone going through this without having something come up, we work on it in a group and individually with the Supervisor. I put in a lot of hours so I was pretty tired after starting two days after we moved up to Columbia. Greenwood is about 70 miles from Columbia, so I would come home on the weekends. 92 year old Miss Dot was kind enough to let me stay at her house during the ten weeks. We got along famously. I will miss her. It was good to have the three weeks off, but another three weeks would have been great. One of the bad things about CPE is that I didn’t have a place to work out, so I went 10 weeks with only working out on Saturday a few times. I have gotten back into working out but not as many times a week as I need to. Still a work in progress.


To bring all of you up to speed from the summer: Debbie got a good job in a doctor’s office working about one and a half miles from where we live. Can’t get much closer than that. She does billing and backs up the front desk. She says the people are real nice and she really likes it there. Danielle is working at the same company she worked for in Sarasota but in a much higher volume store here in Columbia. Hopefully with school starting back up and everyone on campus they can both get involved in something here to meet people. We have a welcoming picnic this evening. Deb will get to go, but Danielle is closing at work tonight. Sam just came up for about 5 days and we had a good visit. She went back home this morning. We have moved into one of the four bedroom townhouses on campus. It is three stories with fairly small rooms. We got rid of a lot of stuff when we moved, but we still have to jettison more. For me that is good, I seem to be moving towards a minimalist. For others, not so much. We have been going to my field church all summer and the girls are getting acclimated there. I start my second year of field education there on September 19th. We look forward to another move in about 10 months. (Don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.)

I worked so many hours in CPE that I didn’t keep up on my Greek. I have Greek Readings this semester. We translate the Gospel text for each week. I have been a little stressed out over what has slipped out of my brain during the summer. I did get my pre-class assignment of Luke 15:1-10 and a worksheet asking about how certain words are being used done yesterday. Class isn’t until Thursday morning so I am good. However, I am beginning to think Greek will haunt me until I get out of here. And to make things even more fun we start Hebrew tomorrow morning. I am not going to know which side of the page to read from this whole semester. Interestingly this year several of the classes have given us assignments or reading assignments prior to class starting. I guess a seminarian sitting around doing nothing is not a pretty sight so someone had to do something about this.

I was asked to be a mentor to the incoming class this year. A Middler and a Senior take on about 8-10 students coming in. We have a meeting this afternoon to pair the Middlers and Seniors and assign the Juniors to us. It was helpful last year to have the mentors around so I felt it a good thing to do for the incoming class. I will also be working in the computer lab again this year. I am looking for anything to do around campus to earn some extra money. Some opportunities come up and they are welcomed.

That is all I have for now.  It has been a while since we talked.  I will be back at it again now that school has started.  God bless each of you.  Really both of you,  but I like to think big.