Home...

I have lived on my own, away from home, for almost seven years. I have always made my home wherever I find myself and have enjoyed my independence. There are times, however, when being away from my first home is difficult. There are also responsibilities that come along with independence that can make going home difficult. I guess that's all part of the life of a Mennonite seminarian who has a summer job in Indiana, a 24 hour drive from home.

Yesterday my grandma Buhler went home. I am remembering her as a woman of prayer, of generosity and humility. Her passing was not altogether unexpected and she was very ready to "go home."

I like how my sister put it in her blog, she was healed.
(http://whatelseisred.blogspot.com/)

However, it is still a time of grief and remembering, and at a time like this I am reminded of how far away from home I am.

The making of a s'more...

On our first day of freedom a few of us got together to celebrate our survival of the semester. Good times!

Let the lawn mowing begin...

Yesterday I began my job on the summer crew. Myself and one other student have been given all the lawn mowing responsibilities for the summer. LOVE IT! He gets the big tractor with the 15' mower and I get to run the two smaller tractors. My co-workers on the admissions team told me that when they saw me on the mower in the morning I was glowing and looked very relaxed compared to my state last week as I was racing to the end of the semester. So I spent seven hours on the mower yesterday, and then went home with a nasty headache and threw-up (too much information?). I got heat stroke! I don't think I've ever had heat stroke before and I thought I had taken the necessary precautions, wearing a hat when the sun came out and drinking lots of water, but the heat (27C) and humidity was too much for this prairie girl. Anyway, a good night's sleep and I was ready to go again this morning. Today I mowed and then planted many, many flowers.

What has been most intriguing to me is how many people have had to do a double-take when they see me on the tractor (and today I dressed the part with overalls and all). I guess they've only ever seen me in my student and perhaps my admissions roles. I feel like a bit of a "jack-of-all-trades" ("master of none," as my dad would say).

School's Out For Summer...

Wow, I did it! I've survived my first year of studies at AMBS! I've survived 14.5 credit/hours crammed into one semester! The last few weeks I've been working up to this day and the last few days I've been giddy with the end so near. Now that it's here I almost feel too tired to care. The heat today could also be playing into my exhaustion, but no complaints on that front--it is 7:45pm and still 27C.

I had my Greek and Hebrew oral exam this morning, which went well enough though not fantastic. Lets just say I won't be doing Scripture reading at church in Greek or Hebrew anytime soon.

All my papers are in. I've discovered that I don't mind doing the research for exegetical papers but I really don't like writing them, especially if I do the research almost a month before writing the paper. Counselling is my niche and I whipped up the paper for my Pastoral Counselling and Theology class in just a few hours (it helped that it was reflection and not research). My Human Sexuality and Christian Ethics course was fantastic and I really enjoyed writing my paper for that class on silence and voice in terms of self-disclosure and testimony. There were many other papers over the course of the semester, but this gives you a taste of what I've been up to the last few weeks.

Last week we also had our recital for Soul and Voice, which went fairly well I think. Each of us performed five pieces, a few singing and a few speaking. I can say that I am far more confident with my voice and this course has been an illuminating experience.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be working on campus with the summer crew. I was asked today if I could start next week already, so I'll get to start on the yard work on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to a complete change of pace and having my evenings free.

My practicum for fall is set. I will be a chaplain at Elkhart General Hospital. I'll most likely be working in the oncology and critical care units, as well as some ER and the chaplain there is going to see if he can get me in on some OB/GYN cases. I'm really excited about the opportunity but also have moments of panic where I wonder, "What in the world are you getting yourself into?" I just keep telling myself that when you're actually in a crisis situation you just do what you need to do in the moment and that I probably know more that I give myself credit for. Something I've realized throughout my years of post-secondary education is that as you learn stuff it just becomes a part of you and you don't often realize how much you've actually learned. Things that I think are "common knowledge" very often are not. I guess this practicum will be the test. Nevertheless, I will be asking my supervisor for a reading list so that I can give myself a crash course in chaplaincy over the summer. I think I have a handle on the being a "pastoral presence" and counselling aspects of the ministry (though I do not presume to know everything), but it's more of the chaplain-specific duties that I need to learn.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have three whole months to enjoy the lazy days of summer before diving into academic work again.

Time for a retreat...

The Hermitage, where I retreated to in January

As the end of the semester approaches I'm thinking that it's time for a spiritual retreat again. There just doesn't seem to be enough time to think about all those things that I keep pushing out of my mind because I have seminary work that is taking priority. Maybe, just maybe, after Wednesday is over I can take some time away from the busyness of life and be reminded of what life is actually all about.

MennoPrank Society

I had the privilege of attending the inauguration of the MennoPrank Society this week. Our esteemed president of AMBS founded this Society after a recent event during which he found himself pranked. The short version of the story is as follows: Our president is well-known for his famous pie catapult prank that he pulled off in college, managing to huck a pie at an esteemed speaker who was talking about his recently published book, "The Devil Made Me Do It." The perpetrators of the crime, Nelson Kraybill himself along with one of his friends, managed to remain anonymous for well over ten years. Well, during our president's farewell banquet this month, in the company of staff, faculty, and the AMBS board of directors, our president found himself with a wet crotch as he was giving his speech. It seems as though one of our maintenance guys, Donald Steider, rigged up the podium with copper piping and at the appropriate time in the evening opened the tap!

Here is the official document that was released by J. Nelson Kraybill on May 13, 2009:

MennoPrank Society

“He has brought down the powerful form their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” Luke 1:52

Given that Mennonites sometimes Take Ourselves Too Seriously and otherwise fail to celebrate the whimsical grace of God, MennoPrank Society was established to bring raucous laughter to the hallowed halls of Mennonite higher educational institutions in North America. The purpose of said society is to raise the standard of hijinks in the Anabaptist tradition, explore missional implications of pranksterism in a postmodern society, and affirm outstanding acts of buffoonery with a MennoPrank Award.

A recipient of the MennoPrank Award shall be a student or employee of a Mennonite institution of higher education in North America who is the prime perpetrator of a prank that:

• happens at a Mennonite institution of higher education in North America;

• humorously brings down the mighty or elevates the lowly;

• generates mirth, not hard feelings;

• has the hallmarks of ingenuity and innovation;

• causes no significant damage to buildings or other property;

• creates no undue amount of work for institutional staff;

• is morally decent and ethical;

• involves no risk of bodily harm to perpetrator or victim;

• targets no one who has already been the victim of an award-winning MennoPrank.

A recipient of said award shall:

• be capriciously selected by the grand Poobah of MennoPrank Society in consultation with other MennoPrank Society members;

• receive a framed award acknowledging his or her elevated status as a life-time member of the MennoPrank Society;

• be guardian of the coveted one-and-only MennoPrank Holy Grail until such time as a new MennoPrank Award recipient is named;

• do shoulder-tapping and mentoring for a new generation of pranksters;

• learn the secret MennoPrank Society handshake and have voting privileges in the selection of future award recipients;

• receive a monetary award of $1,000,000, to be paid at the rate of one dollar per year for a million years.

MennoPrank Society was founded in 2009 as a stroke of genius in the otherwise lackluster career of J. Nelson Kraybill, prime perpetrator of the pie catapult Prank of the Century at Goshen College in 1974. MennoPrank Society award recipients and the hijinks they committed are:

Donald Steider: Presidential pants-wetting prank at AMBS, May 1, 2009

Summer...bring it on!

Well, my summer plans are set before me. I'M ON THE SUMMER CREW! Every year maintenance hires a few students to help out with cleaning, painting, lawn mowing, etc. on campus and this year I am honoured to be part of the crew. There will likely be 11 students helping out this summer. I'm really looking forward to the change of pace. My start date is June 1.

I have also been working in the admissions office since September and I will continue there 5-10 hours per week through the summer.

At the beginning of last week I didn't know what I would be doing for the summer (besides relaxing, soaking up the sun and perhaps taking a class - none of which pay the bills) and this week I have 2 summer jobs. Somehow, things always work out and I am reminded that God's got things under control.

Keeping my head on straight...

I can't stand being disorganized, and yet as the end of this semester is rapidly approaching I'm finding myself getting sloppier and sloppier. For example, I typically organize my class notes into their respective binders at least once/per week if not more often and I haven't done that in about two weeks. I'm also not caring quite so much at the moment about the dust on this desk even though it's not that bad--it's only been 2 weeks since I've dusted, but usually it would drive me crazy! Dishes aren't getting done in the timely manner that is characteristic of me. I've haven't been writing everything into my day-planner lately, which is really dangerous at a time like this (thus far I don't think I've forgotten anything important). The end of this semester is going very well and I feel as though I have a handle on assignments...but my lack of control at the moment is bugging me (though strangely enough, it's not bugging me enough to motivate me to get my butt in gear). Perhaps I have finally learned to let go of things that I can deal with later and focus on what really needs to get done now so as to not lose my mind. I guess that's a good thing.

Letting go and giving up control has been a lesson that I need to learn in my spiritual life as well. I'm beginning to see that just because I don't have all my ducks lined up in a row the way I would ideally want them to be doesn't mean that they will all sink. I know disorganized notes and dusty furniture isn't really that big a deal, but I need to start somewhere, right?

However, with that said, do you know what I'll be doing the first couple days after classes are done? Cleaning and organizing this place from top to bottom!

Trees in bloom...

I just can't get enough of the beautiful trees in bloom.

As you may notice from the above pictures, it is often cloudy in northern Indiana since we're so close to Lake Michigan. We were joking during one of our admissions team meetings that our slogan should be: Come join us in Indiana, land of the dead sky. I thought that was ironic since I'm from Saskatchewan, land of the living skies and I don't think the person making that comment knew that!

Dancing my way into gardening...

This evening Carrie and I planted our garden in the AMBS community garden. The soil is very sandy so we added lots of peat moss. Corn, peas, beans, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, and somewhere between the store and home we lost our pepper seeds. This is our first attempt at growing our own garden, and it was amazing how many of those things our mothers reminded us of over and over again when we were children helping in the garden actually stuck. As we planted we shared many stories of the dreaded hours spent in the garden. It's amazing how things change!

Carrie was the photographer, and is turning out to be quite the photographer at that. I love this pic! I promise you, she did more than just take pictures.

We were really surprised at how big our garden plots are!Carrie, the budding photographer, seemed to know exactly when to snap the picture because she got a series of them that made me look as if I was dancing in the garden if you look at my feet. I guess one could say I was doing the "ho-down" (I know, bad pun)!

Myra came to make sure we were getting it done right, but it turned out the sticks were of far more concern than the peat moss.

"The Garden Claw" dance.

So, if you never hear about our gardening experience again you can probably assume the worst and if things grow well, I'm sure you'll hear about it here first. Stay tuned...