Sneaky...

The plans have been in the works for a while - plans to celebrate our wonderful friend's birthday. Andrea is usually the one who plans our birthday celebrations so we figured we really needed to outdo her. We decided a surprise involving kidnapping would be best. So here was the plan and execution of it: Joanne and Cara blindfolded and kidnapped Andrea after her shift at the AMBS library on Friday afternoon. They drove her around to thoroughly confuse her (turns out they accidentally drove her all the way to Mishawaka) before bringing her right back to her house on campus. She had no idea that she was at her house until they took off the blindfold when she was in her kitchen. There she found the table set and one of her favorite meals prepared by Carrie and I - tortellini, garlic bread and caesar salad. For dessert we had frozen mint-chocolate ice cream cake, one of Carrie's specialties and Andrea's requests. During supper Andrea told us that she had suspected that we were up to something so she had tested Joanne earlier in the day to see if she had plans that evening. Joanne covered well, but Andrea - suspicious as she is - actually set out a suitcase for us! Carrie and I noticed it sitting on her bed when we got a chair from her room in preparation for supper. So Andrea was surprised that she had ended up back at her house. Little did she know that we planned to kidnap her a second time, this time to Camp Freidenswald for an overnighter. The plan was to surprise her with supper, then take her to go rent a movie (a diversion so her bag could be packed), settle in to watch the movie and then blindfold her a second time before taking off for the night. Though she had suspected a kidnapping I think she had resigned herself to a supper and evening in her own home as her birthday surprise. Everything was working out wonderfully until someone came to the door to pick up Andrea's housemate and he let it slip that we were going to Friedenswald. I can't even tell you how irritated all of us were at him! So the surprise was ruined but Joanne went and packed a bag for Andrea anyway and we all crammed into our car and headed up to Michigan. As students of AMBS we are offered one free night at Camp Friedenswald for personal retreats. I made arrangements for the 5 of us to have a retreat together so we took advantage of the free offer and got a cabin all to ourselves. All of us agreed that this was exactly the kind of retreat we needed. After a few runs down the tube run around midnight we had left our seminary cares behind. We presented Andrea with a "26 things we love about Andrea" collage, a birthday tradition among our group of friends, and talked into the wee hours of the morning. This morning we feasted on french toast and fruit. All of us were dragging a little coming back to campus, due in part to the lack of sleep but also because all of us were less than enthusiastic about coming back to homework. Here are a few pictures from our weekend adventure. Happy Birthday Andrea!

Land of ice and snow...

Yesterday Carrie and I ventured out on campus and captured a few images of winter:

AMBS snow day...

Last night we apparently had a snow storm. In their defense it did snow a good number of inches so administration decided to close the seminary for the morning. Afternoon classes went on as usual.

Well, since we had the morning off my friend Andrea decided to take full advantage of the snow day and sent out an invitation to come over to build a snowman. I responded to her invitation and this is what we came up with...






We decided to name him Mr. Witmarsum Marpeck. Here he is, enjoying our favorite summertime activity - cookouts at Narnia house.

My practicum supervision peer group found out this afternoon what I had been up to in the morning so I defended what my professor called "arrested development" by sharing with them how play is a very healthy form of self care. And it was...


Our maintenance team also appeared to be playing with their new toy - the snow blower attachment to the Steiner. In case you don't recognize it, that's the same tractor I drove this summer just with a cab attached. They've promised me a turn to try out the new snow blower yet.

A new semester begins...

Some say that the first weeks of the semester are more difficult than the middle of the semester - boy, I hope they're right. Getting back into the swing of things has not been easy.

I started off in the admissions office on Monday and had a bit of catch-up to do after being away for 1 1/2 months. On Tuesday I spent my first day back at the hospital and had a number of really good visits with patients which was really encouraging. Yesterday morning I was back at the hospital and I got my first call to the OB unit which is something I was really hoping I would get the chance to do.

Today I had my first class session of Systematic Theology - a course that I am admittedly dreading. If the professor can find some way of making this practical, which I think he's going to try to do, it will be redeemed for me but at this point I just don't know. Fortunately my dreaded class Thursday mornings is followed by an uplifting class on Thursday afternoons - a Spiritual Disciplines Seminar in Journaling. That's right - I'm actually going to get credit for journaling, something I already do and really enjoy doing! I'm praying that this seminar will sustain me through practicum work and systematizing theology.

In addition to Systematic Theology and Journalling Seminar, I also have my three practicums that I was involved in last semester continuing this semester: Spiritual Guidance Practicum (Spiritual Direction), Pastoral Counselling Practicum (chaplaincy), and Ministry in Church and World (chaplaincy). Suffice it to say, seminary life is BUSY!

In the midst of the business, I'm trying to figure out how to prioritize - how to live life in such a way that I keep everything in perspective. I don't want to spent the rest of my seminary life (or life after seminary) running around like a chicken with its head cut off. So I'm trying to figure out where rest and relaxation and time just doing things for fun and Sabbathing all come in. I'm trying to learn how to breathe in the midst of the business.

Something I've been learning in my work with spiritual direction is cultivating awareness of God in the moment. I read a quote today that I'd like to leave you with:

"If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that God speaks to us largely through what happens to us..." ~Frederick Buechner