life since we last talked

Happy Spring! What an amazing time here in MN. The resurrection is given whole new meaning when one survives a Minnesota winter and is greeted by the new life of a warm spring day. I know I'm being rather sappy but who couldn't be in this weather. It is even getting to the point where the night is comfortable. Wow! Every year I know it's coming, but every year spring takes me by surprise.

We are just past the midpoint of the semester and things are really picking up! Coming right off a week of pretty intense midterm paper writing, many of us are already looking toward finals. So much to do! Student council just finished our Bread for the World letter writing campaign this last Friday. It went quite well. The subject this year is the Earned Income Tax Credit, and it really needs our support. I sincerely recommend checking out the link above and writing a quick letter. God's vision for the world needs YOU!!!

Student Council's next big project is a screening of This Palestinian Life, a film documenting life in occupied (even if it is technically legal) Palestine. The screening will be followed by a discussion which will be incredible. Between Student Council, work, and school I'm being kept pretty busy, but my attention also has to be given to CPE, church, and the wedding. Seminary is certainly a busy time. Last week was our first Clinical Pastoral Education training. I'll be interning as a chaplain at Advocate Good Shepherd hospital in Barrington, IL. The hospital is big and beautiful, and I am really looking forward to the summer there. Developing pastoral care skills is definitely something that I'm excited about. Not to mention the opportunity to process all of this summer's happenings in a group setting. What with the wedding and everything else, I'll definitely benefit from the group. At church I am looking forward to our Earth Day celebration next weekend. We'll be volunteering at Minehaha falls! We've also got the March of Dimes coming up and we're going to hear author and emergent church mover and shaker Brian McLaren speak this coming Thursday! In other news, the wedding is coming along nicely. We're just finishing ordering invitations, and we pretty much have all the other important stuff done. Woohoo! Personally, I'm ready to be married and in Mexico! I think this is pretty much all that's going on...oh, wait. I forgot, I'm also in the process of applying to become a part of Luther's Congregation and Missional Leadership cohort. This will provide me with the tools to be able to pursue mission-focused calls even right out of seminary. In my opinion all calls are necessarily mission-focused, but I want to be sure that I am intentional about this focus. I'll talk more about this in my next post.