8.28.2004

New Student Orientation

I was tempted to title this 'New Student Borientation' cause I thought that'd be funny, but it really wasn't that boring, so it'd be inappropriate. Becca and I were at the seminary from 8:45 to 12:30 today along with all the other new students and their spouses. For students who happened to be single, spouses were provided. As well, the staff and faculty were present, so I got to eat lunch (pizza!) with Paul Wegner, and throw my plate away next to Wayne Grudem. Pretty neat. Anyways, we got to meet a lot of really awesome people, I'll now know a couple of people in class, and it felt really great to be able to set down all my stuff I'd collected during the orientation time in my very own cubicle, with my very own nameplate on the wall. I can see why the seminary has been voted the number one Christian work environment the last two years, cause seriously everyone there really loves the Lord, and really loves one another. I can't wait to get started working Monday, and to start classes that evening.

Anyways, it sounds like I passed my Greek exam last week, though I haven't seen the official grade or anything, which means the courses I took during undergrad will replace the first year of Greek courses here. So, Monday night I have Greek Syntax & Exegesis with John DelHousaye; Tuesday night I have Principles for Biblical Interpretation with Fred Chay; and Wednesday night I have Living in God's Presence with Norm Wakefield-a class which Becca is going to take with me as a personal enrichment course.

Anyways, I gotta run for the moment--I'll try and start posting shorter, but more frequent blog entries. My goal is to be posting entries that just contain one letter, 120-150 times each day, but i'm not quite there yet.

8.24.2004

Good news...!

Well I finally have some news to share:

As of Monday, August 23, at about 11:30 AM I am the newest full-time employee of Phoenix Seminary! I start next Monday working as a Recruiter contacting potential students and working with area college ministries to help people discern if God is calling them to seminary, and if so if He is calling them to our seminary in particular. The job is an interesting combination of my work at Century & in 519, so I'm really starting to think God can take whatever experiences we have and use them to prepare us for something good He wants to do.

Basically, life is about to change a lot: I'll be at the seminary from 8:30 to 5 every day for work, then til 8 for class Monday and Wednesday, til 10 Tuesdays, and I won't be bored and feeling like a bum since I've been unemployed since May now. However, I have totally loved getting to spend so much quality time with my wife--how many people get to spend a summer together like we just did? It was such a blessing, and was much needed since we're about to see each other a lot less than we did when we worked together.

Let's see, in other news, we celebrated our 4th anniversary last thursday, and I simply cannot believe that we've been married that long. I've said it before, but it feels like we've been married only a few months, and at the same time that we've been married forever (the latter not in the sense of I find marriage interminable, but that I can't imagine what life was like when I wasn't getting to share it with Becca). We had a great day together (we've had a lot of great days together lately though), and Becca got a Seal CD (IV) which I have just become increasingly addicted to [it's on right now, in fact]. I decree that Seal and Sting must combine forces, and form Steal, or Sling, or something along those lines, and use their admirable musical abilities to thwart evil in the world. Or something like that.

I've got my Greek exam in about an hour here, if I pass it (which I had better) I get to skip out of the first year of Greek at seminary. I still will take just as many credits in Greek courses, but I'll get to take more classes focused on individual NT books instead of just the greek grammar courses. I am such a geek, I get excited about this stuff--Brian we need to figure out a way to use our blogs to make witty comments based on our extensive greek knowledge.

Well, I have to go study a little more before my test, I will try and blog a bit more often. Talk to you all soon!

8.12.2004

What's up?

Well I actually got to work a little this week, which was kind of weird since I still don't know for sure if I have this job... Today was thoroughly exciting: I staffed a recruiting table for Phoenix Seminary at a Christian Marriage & Family Conference for 6 hours, and talked to (prepare yourself) maybe half a dozen people. Most of the time I spent reading the seminary catalog and a textbook on historical theology, and listening to this maddening, maddening music that was playing through the hotel sound system. For the few hours I was there yesterday afternoon, I was pretty involved in either conversations with Jeff or with the few other people who stopped by the booth; but today I was there on my own and just got to listen to the music which was on a 25 minute loop, repeating itself over, and over, and over. Ahhhhhhh!!!!

It's been kind of neat though, getting to share the story of how God drew me to this particular seminary with people. I am really looking forward to starting classes in a couple of weeks. After reading through the cataloge again today I was struck by the fact that I'd have to get three masters if I took all the classes that I want to take that they offer. I don't think I will do that, though. Even with the 94 credits that comprise my program in M.Div., I want to take every class that's offered, but you just have to focus. This semester I'm taking Principles for Biblical Interpretation, Intermediate Greek, and Living in God's Presence. Maybe I'll even post a syllabus or something so that you can all read along in all of your spare time. :)

Other than that, all I have to share with you right now is a funny anecdote: Becca & I were driving today, and I made some joke about mammon, which was of course hilarious, and she commented on how while it was funny that very few people would get it, as even among Christians a lot of people wouldn't know what the reference was to. Oh, never mind, it's too hard to explain. Wait, no, it's worth it, I'll take the time and explain the whole situation. So, we were driving, and I made this joke, and -- no, it will take to long. Here's the short version of it: Oh, forget it.

8.07.2004

Prepare the Monkey-Helmets!

Well, I've had an interesting week of job interviewing, studying for my Greek test, and doing some reading for seminary. I still don't have a definitive answer on the job, but hopefully will find out for sure soon. I can't believe we've been here for two weeks already! It's insane, we miss everyone back home so much. We've got a couple of churches we might go to on Sunday, either the VCF of Scottsdale or another one called Highlands. Hopefully we'll get into a home group soon, and get to know some people down here. It's kinda lonely. Actually, we think even Puppy is lonely, he must miss having all the attention, or at least miss seeing different shoes and getting to eat some of them.

I am actually having a hard time putting down one of my textbooks, it's an overview of theology over the past 2000 years. I just finished the section on the patristic period (up through about 450AD). It was really, really cool. One of the problems I think we have as moderns is that we think the ancients were stupid, so we don't take the effort to read and learn what's already been debated and decided in the church. So many of the heresies which are common today (and some which I think are too common and too tolerated, unfortunately) are really, really old. I'll have some more to write on this, but someone's in line behind me to use the computer, so....

We should have internet access in our apartment starting tuesday, so that'll mean more blogging and other internet communications...