Waiting...

What Ray is not-so-subtly hinting at with his last entry about "Big news coming on April 7" is that our internship assignments for next year will be announced Friday afternoon. Right now, we - and all our classmates - are anxiously awaiting those announcements.

When you start seminary, you know that you face two years of classes, a year of internship in a congregation, then another year in classes. What you don't realize is how quickly those first two years will pass! It is hard to believe that we are now almost ready for internship. (I say almost because there are another four weeks of classes - and several papers and final exams - before this semester is completed.)

Last fall, we filled out internship applications and were interviewed by members of a placement committee on campus. Of course, we told them that we would prefer to remain here in town, so we wouldn't have to move. But the reality is that there are very few sites available within commuting distance, and those will go to our classmates who have pressing reasons to remain here - spouse's job, children finishing high school, etc. We can rent out our house, pack up, and move; and we expect to need to do so. Our situation is special, of course, because both of us are students. Fortunately, we have been promised that they can find us two congregations close together, so that we can live together and commute reasonable distances to work and worship. We know that they found appropriate sites for THREE couples in last year's intern class, so we have been very confident that they would locate ONE this year - since we are the only couple in our class.

We expected to have assignments by the end of March, but it seems it has been difficult to secure enough sites for everyone in our class, so the announcement was delayed until April 7. In the meantime, the placement committee works to match interns to congregations based on their applications and interviews - selecting the type of congregation and supervisor that will be the best match for each student.

Lest you think all the locations are in North and South Carolina, last year there were students from Southern Seminary on internship in a number of other places, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Now the tension is increasing dramatically for our entire class as we wait for the news.

So Ray is right: A big announcement is coming on Friday, April 7!