Turning Pages

The past two weeks have been filled with an excellent J-term class on Educational Ministry with Adults. Imagine an entire semester of coursework crammed into eight days of classes. With four books to read and five written assignments to complete, plus a class session to teach, we have spent most all of our time focused on this class. It has been a great course – one which I’m sure will have tremendous impact on our future ministry – but I’m glad to be done and have the weekend to relax before the regular semester starts next week.

In the meantime, I’ll take advantage of the breather to write about two books that Ray and I both read over break – we highly recommend both of them!

The first is Once Around the Track by Sharyn McCrumb. Ray and I have enjoyed many of her other books. Most of them are mysteries with an historical theme, set in the mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee – countryside which we know pretty well.This time, she has written a book of fiction about NASCAR, set in the town of Mooresville, North Carolina – which is just north of Charlotte. Ray’s a big NASCAR fan, the characters are bigger than life, the story is captivating, and the scenery is familiar – a winning combination! It should be available in your favorite local bookstore or public library.


The second book we took time to read while we were on vacation is Sunday by Sunday which is written by a friend of ours from the seminary campus, Cristy Fossum. Sunday by Sunday is written as the journal of a woman, who is determined to grow old not-so-gracefully, but by living each day fully! Her journal entries reflect on her experiences with her family and friends, her life of faith, her experiences in worship, and the weekly lectionary texts from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). This is a work of fiction, but so true to life that it will make you laugh and cry – sometimes both at the same time. I am already waiting impatiently for the next volume to be published – hurry, Cristy!

If you can’t find this in a local bookstore, you can purchase it directly from the author’s website. I also understand that there will soon be a downloadable study guide available – this would make a great resource for a women’s study group. And after the past couple of weeks, I feel fully qualified to make that recommendation!

Living in the Eye of the Storm

The last several weeks have passed by so quickly! I can hardly believe that Advent and Christmas are past and the New Year has arrived. Here we are in the season of Epiphany already! I hope that the anticipation of Advent and the joys of Christmas were blessings to others as they were for us. May we all continue to grow in our awareness of the active presence of God in our daily lives as we move into and through this Epiphany season in the weeks to come.

After worship on Christmas Eve, as we greeted the pastor, he asked us how we were doing in this in-between time – for as he knows, we are between semesters and between approval and call. We realized then that this is for us, in many ways, the eye of the storm. And given some of our unique experiences on our seminary journey, it seems like a very appropriate image!

The past semester has indeed passed like the front wall of a hurricane with its triple threats: the heavy rain of homework assignments; the high winds of the approval process, and the rising tides of anxiety as we felt like we were holding still and the storm was moving over/around/through/past us!

After the work for the semester was done and the quiet begun, we had another flurry of activity as we prepared for Christmas and accomplished some long-delayed household chores, like installing a new storm door before the cold winds invaded our home!

Now, we are experiencing a week of quiet rest and vacation, trying to fully enjoy this time away while still anticipating the return of the second wall of the storm. We are fully aware that the storm is not yet over. Our final semester of seminary will begin very soon, since we have enrolled in a J-term class which begins next Monday! This two week intensive course on educational ministry with adults will get our semester underway. Then at the end of January, the regular semester begins.

Along with the pounding rain of schoolwork, we face gusting winds again as the long anticipated assignment event occurs in late February and the process of being called to serve in a congregation begins. And I have no delusions about either of us remaining totally calm in the face of all this. In spite of our excitement at the prospect of graduating and accepting calls to serve and our faith that God is with us through every step of this journey, the tidal surge of anxiety will no doubt come as well!

For now, we are deliberately savoring this calm and peaceful vacation time, while preparing for the storm to return…