I've reached my 100th post! Hooray! I feel like I should throw a party or do some sort of giveaway in celebration. But, then again, 100 is just a number, like 99 or 101, so I suppose I can just do a standard update and that will suffice. =)
This week is going to be a high stress week. It's that time of year again: midterms, midterms, midterms. Thankfully, I don't have any formal midterms, but I do have a five page paper due on Tuesday and a presentation to do on Thursday. So there is always something to do.
It is scary how fast time goes by. On Monday morning, I will be leading the worship service for the seminary's Chapel, which I am very excited about. I will have audio and video recordings of the service, so if anyone wants one, let me know and I'll figure out how to get those to you. I will be the owner of the master copies, so I can make as many copies as I want (in case anyone was worried about that).
I'm also at the halfway point of the semester, which is equally scary because it means I only have half the semester left to work on my independent study. Enough time, but the clock is winding down quickly.
But I'm also excited because starting next week, I'll have little moments of respite in my busy schedule. Melissa, my wonderful sister, is coming to visit on Wednesday, and I'm so excited. (Ali, you're wonderful too, but you aren't visiting yet, so you need to rectify that somehow. ;-) ) Then I have another friend visiting in November. Then I get to come home for Thanksgiving, and then a few weeks after that, I'm done and will be home for Christmas. So I'm about to enter a rapid-fire portion of the semester, so time management is going to be important.
My teaching ministry internship is going so well. I'm realizing more and more that teaching is my strong suit. I'm good at it, and I feel most alive when I'm doing it. The current session we're working on now has been going great, and the next session I get to teach solo, which will be a fun and challenging experience.
I should probably get back to my studies, so I will end this post here. Reading week (our fall "break") is coming the week of Halloween, so I'm looking forward to that, not only for rest, but to hopefully get some work done on my research paper and maybe some exploring of the East Coast. But more on that next time...
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Moving Right Along
No rest for the weary.
Things have been moving pretty quickly this semester, and it feels a little crazy trying to keep everything straight sometimes. It is weird to think that at 2:00 this afternoon, I will already be 20% with Fall Semester. Time is already running out to finish some of my major projects, and I've hardly even started! But that's the nature of grad school, and I need to keep plugging along.
I added an independent study to my course load this semester, which was always in the plan. It will be a good study, but it's going to be pretty intense. 2000 pages minimum of reading with a 30-40 page research paper as the product. It will be the larger project I will have completed in my educational career so far, so it's a bit intimidating. But I have a great advisor, one of the leading theologians in his field in the world. And after submitting my paper proposal and course line, he called it "first class," which is always reassuring. Of course, now I have even more stress because I made the "mistake" of impressing him upfront and now I actually have to deliver on my first class introduction. I work better under pressure.
For those who are curious, my indepedent study is focused around Lesslie Newbigin. He was a missionary in India for 40 years, and after returning to England, his main agenda was challenging the church to re-engage modern western culture. He felt that the church had neglected the West and had too readily accepted modern principles without question. He died in 1998, and unfortunately, from my perspective, it seems that a lot of work has been blown to the wayside. He's quite a fascinating figure and a great writer, so it won't be hard to plug through 2000 pages of his work. My aim in my paper is to examine his position theologically and biblically. What biblical foundation is he working from? How does his approach to mission affect his overall theological vision? Is it problematic? And since he's specifically thinking of the western church, I find this an extremely practical paper for the church in my local contexts.
I seem to be settled in now. I'm more comfortable being back now, though I still wish I was at home. But, as I said before, I am determined to make the best of my last year and take advantage of as much as I can before my time is done. Having good friends out here certainly helps to keep my mind off things, and they've really been there for me in that respect. Certainly makes the adjustment easier.
That's all for now. It's about lunch time, and my stomach is reminding me of that fact. More to come soon.
Things have been moving pretty quickly this semester, and it feels a little crazy trying to keep everything straight sometimes. It is weird to think that at 2:00 this afternoon, I will already be 20% with Fall Semester. Time is already running out to finish some of my major projects, and I've hardly even started! But that's the nature of grad school, and I need to keep plugging along.
I added an independent study to my course load this semester, which was always in the plan. It will be a good study, but it's going to be pretty intense. 2000 pages minimum of reading with a 30-40 page research paper as the product. It will be the larger project I will have completed in my educational career so far, so it's a bit intimidating. But I have a great advisor, one of the leading theologians in his field in the world. And after submitting my paper proposal and course line, he called it "first class," which is always reassuring. Of course, now I have even more stress because I made the "mistake" of impressing him upfront and now I actually have to deliver on my first class introduction. I work better under pressure.
For those who are curious, my indepedent study is focused around Lesslie Newbigin. He was a missionary in India for 40 years, and after returning to England, his main agenda was challenging the church to re-engage modern western culture. He felt that the church had neglected the West and had too readily accepted modern principles without question. He died in 1998, and unfortunately, from my perspective, it seems that a lot of work has been blown to the wayside. He's quite a fascinating figure and a great writer, so it won't be hard to plug through 2000 pages of his work. My aim in my paper is to examine his position theologically and biblically. What biblical foundation is he working from? How does his approach to mission affect his overall theological vision? Is it problematic? And since he's specifically thinking of the western church, I find this an extremely practical paper for the church in my local contexts.
I seem to be settled in now. I'm more comfortable being back now, though I still wish I was at home. But, as I said before, I am determined to make the best of my last year and take advantage of as much as I can before my time is done. Having good friends out here certainly helps to keep my mind off things, and they've really been there for me in that respect. Certainly makes the adjustment easier.
That's all for now. It's about lunch time, and my stomach is reminding me of that fact. More to come soon.
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