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.