Finally, a new post!

Well, it happened again. I had about ½ of a post written, and then IE shut down on me (I know, I have said before that was going to write the post in Word, then cut and paste it into Blogger, but I was in a hurry…).

As I think I was writing, it is hard to believe that it has been so long since either of us has been able to post anything. I guess it just goes to show how busy Lent can be. In addition to usual business of Lent, we have had lots of volunteers come in (college spring breaks) plus we have both spent some time in Enterprise, AL. For an update on Enterprise and LDR, click here.

While I am sure that we did expect our internship to be somewhat unique, I am not sure that we expected it to be as different as it has been. We have learned a lot about disaster response – on many levels – and have learned a lot about the various organizations that help make things happen. For example, a year ago, I had no idea what VOAD stood for, or that I would have anything to do with it. VOAD stands for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and is one organization that we have become very familiar with. We attend both the Mobile County VOAD meetings on a regular basis, as well as the state VOAD meetings. We have even shared our work on Congregational Preparedness at these meetings.

In addition, a group at St. Paul’s have decided to get our HAM radio licenses so that we will have communications in case of another disaster here. We had classes so we could pass the test, bought radios, and now are having classes so that we can operate our new rigs. If you are interested, my call sign is KI4UDZ.

All this adds to the confusion that arises when someone ask, “What do you want to do after seminary?” The first answer is that we will go where God calls us; the second answer is that after this internship, it will probably be somewhere unique (or at least very interesting). Our candidacy committee recently sent representatives to visit with us, and I think they were overwhelmed with what they found here. I can imagine that most anyone would be – disaster response work is never easy. It certainly puts us in unique situation.

For the meantime, we pray for the strength and stamina to get through Easter; then we can take a few days off and recharge. Enterprise is about to enter a new phase where outside assistance such as LDR has been providing will be minimal, so we won’t be spending as much time traveling. On the other hand, internship is on the downhill side and we still have things to finish, goodbyes to prepare for, and packing to do. August will be here soon enough. Then we move and start a new adventure – that of senior seminarians.