Whew....breathe in, breathe out...yup. Still here!

Well...that opening statement is about what it FEELS like about now. A whirlwind of papers to write, entire books to read within a few days, meetings, convocations, Student council gatherings, chapel, work study, swimming, oh and lest we forget, DON'T FORGET TO PRAY!!!! Yup, that's about what it has felt like over the last 2 weeks!!!! But in a good way...

The first week, last week was a week of contemplative, theological analysis of what I think religion is, what my personal feelings are on Christianity as a whole, learning more about Dubuque and its vast religious community and figuring out what that means to me! TRANSLATION: Lots of readings, lectures and small group discussions plus 2 papers to write so the faculty could make sure I was capable of writing a Graduate level paper! But I did learn and had an enjoyable experience.

Week 2 - This was last week. Running from class to class (not literally of course!), going from meeting to meeting to "kick off" the new year. Going over the syllabus in every class - only to come to the conclusion that I NEED TO GET BETTER about READING my syllabus' regularly! This is where all the lectures come from and homework!
My favorite class so far, definitely, History. I love learning more about, WHERE Christianity started, why it started, HOW it started. I probably ask more questions than I should but I love it. But all and all, I am starting to find that the classes are starting to run together...(except for Greek of course) so this makes it challenging to keep them all separate in my head.
I have to make decisions soon about my CPE. This is Clinical Pastoral Education. This is basically when you become a Chaplain for a few months, while learning to council and minister to people in need. This is usually done at a hospital, and you work M-F with one to two days on call and also usually lead services on site; although depending where you are, you may not do that part. We have one master website where we can CHOOSE where we'd like to go,. but obviously there are a few variables to consider. ONE - All of them have a tuition. So finding one that is reasonably priced is one concern PLUS how to pay for it! TWO - Finding one that is near where I have family or friends, so that I will have housing and meals for the summer is important; not to mention just other bare necessities. and finally THREE -Being near where I have emotional support. CPE tends to be very emotionally exhausting, so I hope to be near some family and/or friends. I actually have a few more weeks to finalize this, but they expect us to do this next summer and of course, MY biggest concern is whether or not I will have to have knee replacement surgery. I am going to see another specialist here next week to see what he says and recommends; as long as I'm not doing any permanent damage to my bones, I'll probably wait to have surgery. So I am looking at doing CPE in a few different places: North Carolina, Arizona, Florida and of course, Texas....Texas is probably where I'll be, but we'll see.
I have made the decision to "plug" into a local church, St. Peter's, but NOT do anything musical. I've gone there a few times now and I really like everything about it and I'll be starting to teach Sunday school soon. Another student is going to co-teach with me. The decision about NOT doing anything musical has been difficult, but I'm trying to stay focussed on my purpose and not get all wrapped up in music stuff; if you're a church musician, I KNOW you know what I mean by that!
I have been doing my work study since last week. I work through St. Mark's Community Center and have been mentoring to a few kids in the morning at one school and work at 3 others within the area every afternoon. I help them with reading, math, spelling, etc. Mainly, just homework stuff. My favorite is at Fulton Elementary where I read to kids every M-F mornings. It just really uplifts me and these kids really appreciate it...or at least it seem like they do! I go with another student, Alan. So we carpool together and take turns driving. It's been fun! I also work part time at State Farm still just 2 nights a week.
My weekends have continued to be busy too! Last Friday and Saturday, I was at a "Passing The Faith" conference at St. Peter's. It's about learning to minister to kids and youth and integrating that in the life of the church AND at home. I actually learned some tips on HOW I can be a better Godparent for my Goddaughter Chloe....but since she's still a toddler, kinda hard to implement....but important just the same. This weekend, they are harvesting the grapes in our vineyard, so I'll be helping with that Saturday AM.
I have been elected as one of the Co-President's of my class. So I am also now involved in Student council. Today we had a "Day of Reflection"...where we focused on some things that we can improve about our seminary and listened to concerns and prayed for each other. Last year this seminary experienced a reduction of staff by 20% and several cutbacks that affected a lot of people, so there has been a lot of restructuring going on that made a lot of people upset. That seemed to be the primary focus of today, but what I said in our closing session tonight was that, "while we all can lament and share the sorrows of last years loss, we need to have this Day of Reflection every year, but call it a Dare to Dream, where we focus on where we are going, what our calling is and remember our purpose for being here; to be servants of Christ. If we stay focused on that, we will be a better seminary that creates better church leaders for ALL our futures"....or something like that. It came it rather eloquently and one professor, who is a hard nut to crack sometimes, even commented on what I said to me after....so I guess, God is continuing to work on me!
The other BIG NEWS....is my J Term. Every January, I have to complete some rural ministry...except for the first year, we are allowed to go to our Home Congregations and "Observe and assist" our Home pastor. So I got the blessings from my church council this past Monday, so I'll be home from December 15-the end of January....which will be nice. I'm looking forward to this, since I've not really had the opportunity to observe what my Pastor does on a daily basis...oughta be interesting for sure!
I put on my first "cleric shirt" this week. I now have 3. I figured I'd need them by January and found them on sale, so I bought them. I cried for 15 minutes staring at myself in the mirror...definately still feeling unworthy or my call; But from what I hear, that NEVER changes, just gets a little easier with time. So anyways, a very moving experience, but a memory I will cherish forever.
So, sorry for the novel, but felt like I needed to get all caught up. Hope I was successful! Many blessings to all reader! May God continue to bless and keep you all....till next time. A new saying I like......Our commission, is to go a fishin'!!!!! Peace!

More pics and video...

Hello!
It's been a fun few days of more sightseeing. Yesterday went up to Peaks Point in N. East Iowa...about an hour and a half drive. The view was stunning. drove along the Mississippi River. Attached are some pics and also went back to Park Farm winery for their annual Grape Stomping. Enjoy the pics and video! Many blessings!

Pics of Galena, Park Farm Winery, Downtown Dubuque & Karaoke Ngt

GREEK IS OVER.....THANK GODNESS!!!

Well....I've gotta be honest, I REALLY am happy that Greek is over! This was the most stressful, emotionally draining class I have ever taken! I am praying that this was the worse of my seminary days, but something tells me.....I'm in for a lot more. Besides....I still have to take Hebrew!!!

The Greek final was a take home exam. We were allowed to use all our helps...the Greek Lexicon, our textbook and lots of charts with verb tenses...one was even laminated. It STILL look me about 7 hrs to complete!! It was difficult, but I did take a few breaks just to remain sane! I left the main building after turning it in and yelled in the main quad! I dunno to who....I suppose just to Marty...the statue of Martin Luther that's in the main quad....who didn't answer...Thank goodness! We had a little get together last night to celebrate....I was the only one who wore a toga! Complete with a gold halo I made with ribbon!
Don't know what I made on the final yet...but I know I passed.

My prologue starts next week. I'll have 7 classes this Fall. My registration is on Tuesday. I actually already have homework for Prologue...but it's just a long article to read...not bad. My Greek professor will actually be my Christian History professor this Fall. I'm actually looking forward to her class; although she did require 6 different books for her class, so perhaps I'll be swallowing my words mid-term!

So I have posted a lot of new photos here. One is of a few students from my Greek class. The older gentleman is Don. He is from about an hr from here. He's a former FBI agent...so he has some cool stories!
The first set of pics are from the city of Galena, IL. About 25 minutes from campus. REALLY neat little town with a lot of history. The old little cabin is the birth place of one of our former president's,....Ulysses Grant. The red brick house with Green shutters is the home he actually lived in. The little trolley car is how I took a tour of the city. The White stone church with the red door is the church Grant used to attend when he lived here. The long stairway is the 2nd longest set of stairs in the United states and the cobble stone stairway is the longest and oldest road in the United states. Then the following pictures were from last weekend and this week. All the beautiful flowers were taken at Dubuque's Arboretum and a few shots I took downtown yesterday at the Riverwalk and then the cable car pics are from the Felenon Elevator; the story is the first Mayor of Dubuque in the 1800's wanted to be able to go home for lunch/dinner at noon everyday, but the problem is he worked downtown as a banker and lived over the high ridge. But it would take him over an hour by horse and buggy so he'd only have time to eat and have to head back...not giving him enough time to do his favorite thing after lunch/dinner...NAP! So he came up with the idea of building something that could take him over the mountain. THUS...many prototypes and years later people started paying to go over the mountain using his lift and the Felenon Elevator Company was born and is still used today; Mainly just for tourist now!

So I have a few more days of break before classes start. Plan on doing a few more cool things. It's been hard having this break not being able to go home to Dallas. Chatting online with my webcam to my best friend, Julie HELPS. More students have been arriving on campus. My neighbor moved back in today. His name is Rob, married, nice guy. I also met a few people from my Synod back home....but I'm terribly home sick! So...till next time, enjoy the pics. Peace and many blessings to all reading!