It has been an insane week around here, and while I’ve been brainstorming & have a bunch of more thought provoking blog posts mulling around in my head, I find myself at Friday without the mental energy to actually write them today. That’s okay though, it’s been awhile since I’ve just done a random life update on our household, so that will have to suffice for today. In no particular order, here’s what has been going on with us lately:
My husband is about half way through one of his summer courses--Pentateuch (the 1st 5 books of the Bible), and he seems to really be enjoying it. It is an awesome class, I took it 4 summers ago, you definitely learn a lot! This is the class where one tackles the whole issue of “is everything in the Old Testament actually literal, or are some things more metaphorical?” He takes another 2 week intensive class at the end of July, and then he is DONE with school work!
I am SO SO SO excited for the month of August, and this fall--we have a TON of stuff coming up that makes me happy :) August will find us chaperoning our church’s high school houseboat trip, which was a blast last year, and then heading to the Hanson family reunion in Colorado for 5 days. September brings with it a potential trip to Japan (although that’s not set in stone yet). October brings weddings three weekends in a row, plus the birth of our new niece/nephew, my little niece’s 1st birthday, and my final assessment with my committee in Seattle so I’ll be able to start looking for an ordained call. My parents just booked plane tickets to come out here in November--it will have been almost 3 years since they will have been here, and we are so excited to show them some new LA spots they haven’t seen.
My husband and I recently counted all the weddings we are either invited to or are participating in this year, and it’s a LOT! Good thing I love weddings so much--we have 11 of them in 2010! He was/is an usher in two, and the minister in one. I’m a bridesmaid in 3 of them--including one on New Year’s Eve (so Becca’s just sneaked into our 2010 count!) We are thrilled for all these amazing couples in our lives getting married and so honored to stand with many of them as they begin their lives together.
I’ve arrived at a really peaceful place these days--which I am really thankful for. I feel like God is really giving me confidence that somehow plans will work out for our family in this whole call process. I’m content with where we are now--not thrilled about doing administrative work all the time, but I am so thankful for the jobs I have, for the church we are in, for our Fuller community of friends, and I trust that we’ll move from this place when we are called. I no longer want to cry or panic as I think about the job hunt process, I’m actually feeling cautiously optimistic about it, and peaceful.
Speaking of job hunts/ordination process--I just scheduled my next big step! October 5th I’ll be back in Seattle for my final assessment with my Committee on Preparation for Ministry! It’s a scary meeting, one I’ve been dreading for about 4 years...but I’m actually feeling ready and excited. I told my friend Becca the other day (who never seems to have any shortage of self confidence in her!) that I was ready to rock this meeting...too bad I have to wait 3 months. But it’s a TON of work getting ready for it, so I guess it’s good that I have this time. I have to preach a sermon to them, turn in my sermon research so they can check my exegesis, defend my Statement of Faith (I had to write my SOF for my candidacy meeting two months ago, but this time I really have to be prepared to defend it on the spot), and prepare my Personal Information Form, which is a very lengthy resume that will be circulated to churches as I look for jobs. It’s an “essay” resume, where you have to write and reflect on what kind of call you want, describing your theology and views of the church etc. It’ll take some work, so I’m glad I can start thinking about it now. I’m just thrilled it’s on the calendar!
My small group of women began going through The Good and Beautiful God together last night, and I’m super stoked about doing this with them. It is a phenomenal book as you have all heard me advocating for on here in the past couple months.
I awoke last Monday to a distraught phone message from my dear friend Missy. Apparently our beloved pastor from my home church in Seattle has taken a call to be the head pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church down in the LA area. I have such mixed feelings about the whole thing. I had a feeling he wouldn’t be at Bethany forever. It is SUCH a healthy church & he has done some incredible ministry there, bringing it to the place of seriously one of the healthiest churches I’ve ever heard of on so many levels. Hollywood is a bit of a mess. It’s had a tumultuous history, and desperately needs someone with his gifts and skills to come in there and let God work through them. Dan is the perfect person for this job. So selfishly I’d love to keep him in Seattle, but I am excited for both him and Hollywood in this next season of life. We have a great church community here in LA, and get our own new pastor Aug. 1st, so we won’t be switching to Hollywood just so I can listen to Dan preach, but I do have a strong feeling I’ll be attending as many evening or alternative worship services there as I can! I have learned a TON about preaching from him, he really is one of my favorite people to listen to.
So this has gotten long enough--a lot of rambling about nothing super important, but I’m on an airplane right now and that’s about all the brain power I have left. I’ll be in Seattle this weekend for a former roommate’s wedding, and then next weekend will be in the Santa Cruz mountains for the wedding of a couple from Fuller (the groom has been in Charles’ small group for the past 3 years). Enjoy your weekend everyone!
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