Yesterday I was ordained by Bishop Joel Martinez. It was a wonderful experience, one which I will write more about on my new weblog at willubeadisciple.blogspot.com.
This is my last day at Grace, so my last entry on this weblog. I am going to keep the site active for a while because I may refer back from the new weblog. I invite you to to visit the new weblog. I had anticipated finishing "The Monumental Journey toward Ordination" before my ordination, but it just didn't happen. However, I intend to work to complete it at the new site.
To my readers around the Southwest Texas Conference, more soon. For my friends at Grace, thanks for everything and may God continue to bless you.
peace,
will
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Greetings from Annual Conference
I am pleased to report that, at the clergy session yesterday, I was elected to full connection and set to be ordained on Saturday. That was the very last vote!
peace,
will
peace,
will
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
The Monument Journey Towards Ordination - Volume 10
I am really getting down to the wire to finish this project. Today, I am to be voted on by the full clergy session of the Southwest Texas Conference. All ordained elders will be eligible to vote later this afternoon on whether to elect me to “full connection.” If they do, I will be ordained on Saturday. Since I come before the group with a unanimous recommendation from the Board of Ordained Ministry, this is sort of a formality, but it still raises a tiny bit of anxiety. This is the very, very, very last vote in a seven (plus) year process.
But back to the unfolding drama. I enrolled at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where they gave me a full scholarship and a really, really cheap apartment. About that time, there were some staff changes at Oak Hill UMC. I spoke a couple times to Rev. Barbara Ruth, then the senior pastor there and she offered me a part time position as Adult Ministries Coordinator. It paid just enough that Alisha and I would be able to get by.
And then, I was back to the process (which was supposed to be what this was about.) At this point, I had been a United Methodist long enough to continue. I was assigned a Clergy Mentor, Rev. Dick West, at the time, Senior Pastor of Covenant UMC in Austin. I was given a giant binder to work through with him. We met once a month for more discernment, working toward my opportunity to sit in front of my church’s staff parish relations committee and the District Committee on Ordained Ministry. And that is where I will pick up next time!
peace,
will
But back to the unfolding drama. I enrolled at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where they gave me a full scholarship and a really, really cheap apartment. About that time, there were some staff changes at Oak Hill UMC. I spoke a couple times to Rev. Barbara Ruth, then the senior pastor there and she offered me a part time position as Adult Ministries Coordinator. It paid just enough that Alisha and I would be able to get by.
And then, I was back to the process (which was supposed to be what this was about.) At this point, I had been a United Methodist long enough to continue. I was assigned a Clergy Mentor, Rev. Dick West, at the time, Senior Pastor of Covenant UMC in Austin. I was given a giant binder to work through with him. We met once a month for more discernment, working toward my opportunity to sit in front of my church’s staff parish relations committee and the District Committee on Ordained Ministry. And that is where I will pick up next time!
peace,
will
Monday, June 02, 2008
Some Closing Thoughts
This is one of two columns printed in this week's Good News, the newsletter at Grace, I am publishing it here for my readers who don't receive it...
In concluding my time here at Grace, I want to offer some thoughts and reflections for you to consider as you continue to move forward in mission and ministry. It is easy to offer thoughts on the way out the door. I get to offer these things and then make a quick exit. However, I offer them with the heartfelt hope that they will provide you insight as you plan for the future of Grace. In keeping with the mission that was shown to me when I first arrived here, I have broken them into three categories: ways to better invite, nurture and serve.
Invite – In order to better invite members of our community into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we must make room. We are already working on making physical room by making plans for a new facility on 624. However, physical room is only part of the equation. We need to think about other limitations and how to remedy them. In order to be ready to invite, consider the following:
Invest in technology – Churches tend to live a few years behind the curve when it comes to technology. I think this causes churches to miss out on the opportunity to be more faithful to God’s call and commission. Technology for technology’s sake is idolatrous, but computers, projectors, wireless connections, web portals and other new technologies can make us better stewards of the gifts and time of our staff and allow us to better connect with our congregation and our community. Faster computers and better software allow our staff and lay ministers to work more effectively and efficiently. Technology when used well in worship can connect a new generation to the gospel. Innovative use of the world wide web, email and even text messaging can connect us to each other and to our community.
Invest in staff – This means two things: investing in training and nurturing the staff we have and growing the staff to meet the needs to the future. Just like we can limit the number of people who worship with us when our sanctuary is too small, there is a physical limit to the number of new people we can invite into our midst when the support staff is too small. We need to constantly evaluate our staffing needs, provide for the nurture, support and growth of our current staff and plan to make additions in order to grow not when we grow.
Nurture – I think many established churches struggle with an understanding of what it means to be nurtured in the faith and who is to do the nurturing. First of all, nurturing involves more than just being taken care of in a time of need. It involves helping one to be open to the growth that the Holy Spirit offers through God’s sanctifying (or perfecting) grace. Second of all, nurturing is a function of the whole community. In order to better nurture each other, consider the following:
Take care of each other. Grace is truly a caring and loving community. As you continue to grow you will need to be more intentional and systematic about what you already do naturally. You will also need to be thoughtful about how your pastors help you to care for one another. Let me give you an example. Quite often, I receive a call from a member of the church letting me know that they heard someone is in the hospital and one of the pastors should go. That’s not bad, but here is something better: Every once in a while I receive a call from someone letting me know that they heard someone was in the hospital and they already went to see them and they just wanted to keep my updated.
Take small groups seriously. In order for us to nurture each other, we need to meet in groups smaller than our worship services. This idea of meeting in small groups in order to nurture, sustain, encourage, care for and hold each other accountable goes back to our spiritual founder, John Wesley. We have started a comprehensive small groups program at Grace but we have only just started. Small groups are central to the life of faith and it takes work to develop, maintain and promote them.
Commit to a plan of discipleship. During my tenure, I talked a lot about a map for discipleship. Some of you heard a lot about the “ocean diagram” which is a plan for better understanding the stages of spiritual and faith development. Whether or not you use the ocean diagram, stay committed to the idea that making disciples is not a one time thing but a life long journey. The church is responsible not just for making members but for leading people into the deep waters of true discipleship of Jesus Christ and service in his name.
Serve – In order to live out our call to be disciples and make disciples; in order to follow our commission to serve the least, last and the lost, we must be organized and intentional in our effort. In order to better follow our calling to serve God and each other, I offer the following thoughts:
Meet well. We did a lot of work to move away from long, unfocused, unproductive meetings that accomplished little, frustrated many and drove talented people away from doing the work of the church. We adopted guidelines for meetings that reminded us to start on time, end on time and have a plan for getting our work accomplished. We also began using an opening liturgy that helped us to root our meetings in prayer and in God’s Spirit. It is really easy to fall out of good habits. Don’t give this up. In my experience, better meetings have allowed us to be more faithful to our mission.
Set goals. It is really easy to get lost if you don’t know where you are going. Last year the Church Council adopted a number of church-wide goals that were developed by our church leadership. Big picture goals not only give us something to aspire to, they give us a way to evaluate our progress. Without them, we can’t even tell if we have succeeded or failed in what we were trying to do. I suggest that you take time before the end of the year to evaluate how you are doing and then set new goals for next year.
Plan. It is also easy to get lost of you don’t think about how you are going to get somewhere. Plan as much and as far ahead as you can. Otherwise, it is too easy to get to the end of another year and realize you never did what you set out to do.
Those are my thoughts. There are so many more floating around in my head, but it is time for transition. It is time for me to begin thinking about my responsibilities at University and it is time for you to start looking to Pastor Mark as he begins to add his insight, vision and leadership to that of Pastor John. I have faith that if you remain strong in your commitment to the Gospel and faithful in your call to follow Christ, God will bless you and the ministry of Grace United Methodist Church.
peace,
will
In concluding my time here at Grace, I want to offer some thoughts and reflections for you to consider as you continue to move forward in mission and ministry. It is easy to offer thoughts on the way out the door. I get to offer these things and then make a quick exit. However, I offer them with the heartfelt hope that they will provide you insight as you plan for the future of Grace. In keeping with the mission that was shown to me when I first arrived here, I have broken them into three categories: ways to better invite, nurture and serve.
Invite – In order to better invite members of our community into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we must make room. We are already working on making physical room by making plans for a new facility on 624. However, physical room is only part of the equation. We need to think about other limitations and how to remedy them. In order to be ready to invite, consider the following:
Invest in technology – Churches tend to live a few years behind the curve when it comes to technology. I think this causes churches to miss out on the opportunity to be more faithful to God’s call and commission. Technology for technology’s sake is idolatrous, but computers, projectors, wireless connections, web portals and other new technologies can make us better stewards of the gifts and time of our staff and allow us to better connect with our congregation and our community. Faster computers and better software allow our staff and lay ministers to work more effectively and efficiently. Technology when used well in worship can connect a new generation to the gospel. Innovative use of the world wide web, email and even text messaging can connect us to each other and to our community.
Invest in staff – This means two things: investing in training and nurturing the staff we have and growing the staff to meet the needs to the future. Just like we can limit the number of people who worship with us when our sanctuary is too small, there is a physical limit to the number of new people we can invite into our midst when the support staff is too small. We need to constantly evaluate our staffing needs, provide for the nurture, support and growth of our current staff and plan to make additions in order to grow not when we grow.
Nurture – I think many established churches struggle with an understanding of what it means to be nurtured in the faith and who is to do the nurturing. First of all, nurturing involves more than just being taken care of in a time of need. It involves helping one to be open to the growth that the Holy Spirit offers through God’s sanctifying (or perfecting) grace. Second of all, nurturing is a function of the whole community. In order to better nurture each other, consider the following:
Take care of each other. Grace is truly a caring and loving community. As you continue to grow you will need to be more intentional and systematic about what you already do naturally. You will also need to be thoughtful about how your pastors help you to care for one another. Let me give you an example. Quite often, I receive a call from a member of the church letting me know that they heard someone is in the hospital and one of the pastors should go. That’s not bad, but here is something better: Every once in a while I receive a call from someone letting me know that they heard someone was in the hospital and they already went to see them and they just wanted to keep my updated.
Take small groups seriously. In order for us to nurture each other, we need to meet in groups smaller than our worship services. This idea of meeting in small groups in order to nurture, sustain, encourage, care for and hold each other accountable goes back to our spiritual founder, John Wesley. We have started a comprehensive small groups program at Grace but we have only just started. Small groups are central to the life of faith and it takes work to develop, maintain and promote them.
Commit to a plan of discipleship. During my tenure, I talked a lot about a map for discipleship. Some of you heard a lot about the “ocean diagram” which is a plan for better understanding the stages of spiritual and faith development. Whether or not you use the ocean diagram, stay committed to the idea that making disciples is not a one time thing but a life long journey. The church is responsible not just for making members but for leading people into the deep waters of true discipleship of Jesus Christ and service in his name.
Serve – In order to live out our call to be disciples and make disciples; in order to follow our commission to serve the least, last and the lost, we must be organized and intentional in our effort. In order to better follow our calling to serve God and each other, I offer the following thoughts:
Meet well. We did a lot of work to move away from long, unfocused, unproductive meetings that accomplished little, frustrated many and drove talented people away from doing the work of the church. We adopted guidelines for meetings that reminded us to start on time, end on time and have a plan for getting our work accomplished. We also began using an opening liturgy that helped us to root our meetings in prayer and in God’s Spirit. It is really easy to fall out of good habits. Don’t give this up. In my experience, better meetings have allowed us to be more faithful to our mission.
Set goals. It is really easy to get lost if you don’t know where you are going. Last year the Church Council adopted a number of church-wide goals that were developed by our church leadership. Big picture goals not only give us something to aspire to, they give us a way to evaluate our progress. Without them, we can’t even tell if we have succeeded or failed in what we were trying to do. I suggest that you take time before the end of the year to evaluate how you are doing and then set new goals for next year.
Plan. It is also easy to get lost of you don’t think about how you are going to get somewhere. Plan as much and as far ahead as you can. Otherwise, it is too easy to get to the end of another year and realize you never did what you set out to do.
Those are my thoughts. There are so many more floating around in my head, but it is time for transition. It is time for me to begin thinking about my responsibilities at University and it is time for you to start looking to Pastor Mark as he begins to add his insight, vision and leadership to that of Pastor John. I have faith that if you remain strong in your commitment to the Gospel and faithful in your call to follow Christ, God will bless you and the ministry of Grace United Methodist Church.
peace,
will
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The Monument Journey Towards Ordination - Volume 9
And now, back to our program.
I got off track a bit and now I am going to go back and pick up where I left off in volume 7. I was in my first semester of seminary, barely hanging on when it was discovered that Alisha had a serious brain tumor. (I guess all brain tumors are serious but this one was especially serious.) I have some really vivid memories of getting that phone call in my depressing little apartment. I remember being completely beside myself for a while, then calling Southwest Airlines then calling my sister to get a ride to the airport. Alisha, being the free spirit that she is was not around when I got to Austin. She had tickets to a concert and opted to go.
Alisha was already my fiancée; we had our wedding scheduled for the next spring. However, the next day, I asked her to marry me sooner, before the surgery. She wouldn’t answer me right away, but finally we went to the courthouse and got the license. Our friend Tina performed the ceremony in the chapel at First UMC in Austin the day before Alisha’s surgery. In fact, after the wedding, we had a little cake in the foyer and then, instead of heading off on our honeymoon, we got in the car with her mother and drove to the hospital for pre-op tests.
Because this is about my call to ministry, and not about Alisha, I am not going to write a lot about the surgery. Alisha ought to write a book about the whole thing. The important news is that she did fine and continues to do fine. In fact, given the diagnosis, things went miraculously well. For the point of this series, the key question is, how did this affect my call to ministry?
Looking back, I feel that my calling has always been pretty deep because this part certainly could have derailed it. It wasn’t that it tested my faith; it was that it just sort of got me off track. For two weeks I was focused solely on Alisha. I was just praying, at first, that she would survive, and then I was thinking about recovery, insurance, income and what we were going to do for the next few months.
I thought for a while about dropping out of seminary, for now. And then I did something that really impacted my future ministry. I went to visit the folks at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I decided to finish up the semester at Perkins in Dallas and then move back to Austin to be with Alisha and what turned out to be a wonderful seminary community. And, oh yeah, I ended up back to Oak UMC, but more on that later!
peace,
will
I got off track a bit and now I am going to go back and pick up where I left off in volume 7. I was in my first semester of seminary, barely hanging on when it was discovered that Alisha had a serious brain tumor. (I guess all brain tumors are serious but this one was especially serious.) I have some really vivid memories of getting that phone call in my depressing little apartment. I remember being completely beside myself for a while, then calling Southwest Airlines then calling my sister to get a ride to the airport. Alisha, being the free spirit that she is was not around when I got to Austin. She had tickets to a concert and opted to go.
Alisha was already my fiancée; we had our wedding scheduled for the next spring. However, the next day, I asked her to marry me sooner, before the surgery. She wouldn’t answer me right away, but finally we went to the courthouse and got the license. Our friend Tina performed the ceremony in the chapel at First UMC in Austin the day before Alisha’s surgery. In fact, after the wedding, we had a little cake in the foyer and then, instead of heading off on our honeymoon, we got in the car with her mother and drove to the hospital for pre-op tests.
Because this is about my call to ministry, and not about Alisha, I am not going to write a lot about the surgery. Alisha ought to write a book about the whole thing. The important news is that she did fine and continues to do fine. In fact, given the diagnosis, things went miraculously well. For the point of this series, the key question is, how did this affect my call to ministry?
Looking back, I feel that my calling has always been pretty deep because this part certainly could have derailed it. It wasn’t that it tested my faith; it was that it just sort of got me off track. For two weeks I was focused solely on Alisha. I was just praying, at first, that she would survive, and then I was thinking about recovery, insurance, income and what we were going to do for the next few months.
I thought for a while about dropping out of seminary, for now. And then I did something that really impacted my future ministry. I went to visit the folks at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I decided to finish up the semester at Perkins in Dallas and then move back to Austin to be with Alisha and what turned out to be a wonderful seminary community. And, oh yeah, I ended up back to Oak UMC, but more on that later!
peace,
will
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Monument Journey Towards Ordination - Volume 8
On our last episode of General Hospital…
It is really difficult to keep forward momentum in this project. I keep wanting to go back and fill in something that I missed. For instance, I could go back and talk about my experience in Disciple Bible Study (mentioned in vol. 2). After I had first expressed my call to ministry, Pastor John had suggested I get more involved. One of the ways I did this was in Disciple Bible Study. I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing impact that study had on my life and call to ministry.
I was with our Bishop, Joel Martinez this past week for his annual meeting with the class of ordinands. Part of his opening reflection was about how it is important to remember those people who helped us and walked with us in our faith journey and our call to ministry. The members of that Disciple Bible Study we are all incredibly important people in my journey. I spent two and a half (and often three) hours a week with eleven other men and women studying the Bible, praying and discussing God’s work in our lives. I learned more about God, scripture and myself in those nine months than I ever have since. That is where I really got to know Rev. Barbara Ruth, my current District Superintendent (and another person who will lay hands on me as the Bishop ordains me at Annual Conference) and my friend Katie who walked with me through some amazingly wonderful and difficult parts of my call to ministry.
It was also during this class that I became very clear about my call. I walked into the class the first week with my brand new Bible having never really read anything from it. During the second to last class, the group is to take time reflecting on each other’s gifts. It was there that I first heard my internal call confirmed by others. I was quite shocked to hear my new friends express that, in me, they saw gifts and a calling to full-time Christian ministry.
I have amazing trust in God’s ability to get things done, but I just can’t imagine that I would have followed my call had it not been for that class. It wasn’t just what I learned, but what I became through it. I guess it is really fitting for a person called to a ministry of deepening discipleship to have been nurtured in his call during a class called Disciple.
As I reflect on this, it really reminds me how important it is for all of us to be aware of those around us who may be wrestling with God’s call on their lives and how important it is for us to be that voice of confirmation. This doesn’t always have to be about ordained ministry. If someone says to you, “You know, I just feel like I might want to work with youth,” and you see in them gifts and talents for that ministry, God may be calling you to tell them that, to confirm what God is placing on their heart. Sometimes confirmation needs to come in the midst of ministry. If you see someone following God’s call and doing a good job at it, God may be calling you to let them know that they are valued.
I am also reminded of the importance of community in our journey as Christians. We are all called to ministry of some sort and that call and confirmation most often come to us in community, in the Body of Christ we call the church. The place where this community does its best work is in small groups, especially small groups that are focused on scripture.
More soon, I promise I will get back to the cliffhanger ending of the last episode!
peace,
will
It is really difficult to keep forward momentum in this project. I keep wanting to go back and fill in something that I missed. For instance, I could go back and talk about my experience in Disciple Bible Study (mentioned in vol. 2). After I had first expressed my call to ministry, Pastor John had suggested I get more involved. One of the ways I did this was in Disciple Bible Study. I cannot begin to tell you what an amazing impact that study had on my life and call to ministry.
I was with our Bishop, Joel Martinez this past week for his annual meeting with the class of ordinands. Part of his opening reflection was about how it is important to remember those people who helped us and walked with us in our faith journey and our call to ministry. The members of that Disciple Bible Study we are all incredibly important people in my journey. I spent two and a half (and often three) hours a week with eleven other men and women studying the Bible, praying and discussing God’s work in our lives. I learned more about God, scripture and myself in those nine months than I ever have since. That is where I really got to know Rev. Barbara Ruth, my current District Superintendent (and another person who will lay hands on me as the Bishop ordains me at Annual Conference) and my friend Katie who walked with me through some amazingly wonderful and difficult parts of my call to ministry.
It was also during this class that I became very clear about my call. I walked into the class the first week with my brand new Bible having never really read anything from it. During the second to last class, the group is to take time reflecting on each other’s gifts. It was there that I first heard my internal call confirmed by others. I was quite shocked to hear my new friends express that, in me, they saw gifts and a calling to full-time Christian ministry.
I have amazing trust in God’s ability to get things done, but I just can’t imagine that I would have followed my call had it not been for that class. It wasn’t just what I learned, but what I became through it. I guess it is really fitting for a person called to a ministry of deepening discipleship to have been nurtured in his call during a class called Disciple.
As I reflect on this, it really reminds me how important it is for all of us to be aware of those around us who may be wrestling with God’s call on their lives and how important it is for us to be that voice of confirmation. This doesn’t always have to be about ordained ministry. If someone says to you, “You know, I just feel like I might want to work with youth,” and you see in them gifts and talents for that ministry, God may be calling you to tell them that, to confirm what God is placing on their heart. Sometimes confirmation needs to come in the midst of ministry. If you see someone following God’s call and doing a good job at it, God may be calling you to let them know that they are valued.
I am also reminded of the importance of community in our journey as Christians. We are all called to ministry of some sort and that call and confirmation most often come to us in community, in the Body of Christ we call the church. The place where this community does its best work is in small groups, especially small groups that are focused on scripture.
More soon, I promise I will get back to the cliffhanger ending of the last episode!
peace,
will
Thursday, May 15, 2008
The Monument Journey Towards Ordination - Volume 7
I seem to be bouncing around a bit. I started in the first post telling about my first step in declaring my call to ministry. Somewhere along the line I got off the timeline and went back to what got me to church. We will call this a flashback sequence. But, if I want to get this project done before I am actually ordained, I better jump forward in time. Maybe, I won’t jump, but fast-forward. I went to that church (Oak Hill in Austin) for a while. I quit that job at KHFI and I went camping. I took my dog Bodhi and loaded up my truck and drove. We camped in Oklahoma, Arkansas and in just about every state on the way to New York where I visited my parents for a while. Then I took off and went to Pennsylvania to see some friends. I stopped by to visit some friends at the radio station I used to work at in Pennsylvania. While I was there I met a man who ran a new division of that radio company in Austin, Texas. He told me to go back to Austin and he would give me a job. So after a little more camping, off I went. I got a cool job which gave me more time to go to church. I got baptized and joined the church. I got more involved. I felt a call to ministry (that was covered in an earlier post). I went to talk to Pastor John and began the inquiry process which got stalled when I hadn’t been a member long enough and restarted a couple months later (also covered earlier). This brings us back up to volume four and my time with Tina Carter at First UMC in Austin. Sometime after I started visiting that Saturday night worship service I: got laid off from my job, fell in love and got engaged, applied to and got accepted to Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas, and finished up the first step or my ordination inquiry process.
So, in the fall of 2001, I packed up my stuff, sent my dog to live with my sister and drove to Dallas to start seminary. I moved into a horrible little apartment about ten minutes from the school and began some of the hardest months of my life. I had never really thought about it before in these terms, but beginning a Master of Divinity degree program less than two years after my baptism was a really crazy thing to do. First of all, nearly all my fellow students had years and years of background that I didn’t. I was one of the younger members of the entering class and I hadn’t grown up the church. I had learned a lot already but many of my classmates were much more familiar with the history, tradition and beliefs of the church as well as much more familiar with scripture. Some of the folks in my classes even had undergraduate degrees in religion. I was a communications major who hadn’t even been through confirmation.
It also occurs to me as I look back that spiritually I was a very new Christian. I hadn’t had time to develop the spiritual depth and foundation to support me through the incredible stress of the workload, the complete upheaval of my life, and the loneliness (all my new Christian brothers and sisters were back in Austin as was my fiancé!)
And then just as I was hanging on by a thread, reading more than I had ever read, learning to write at a Master’s Degree level, trying to continue my spiritual journey, my fiancé, Alisha, calls one day crying. After some prodding, she tells me she has a brain tumor. I have to tell you, for both Alisha and I, before that point, we only used “brain tumor” to describe what something wasn’t, as in “Well, at least it is not a brain tumor.” She had a pretty big one and it needed to come out right away. I was back in Austin that night, leaving seminary behind, for a while.
More soon!
peace,
will
So, in the fall of 2001, I packed up my stuff, sent my dog to live with my sister and drove to Dallas to start seminary. I moved into a horrible little apartment about ten minutes from the school and began some of the hardest months of my life. I had never really thought about it before in these terms, but beginning a Master of Divinity degree program less than two years after my baptism was a really crazy thing to do. First of all, nearly all my fellow students had years and years of background that I didn’t. I was one of the younger members of the entering class and I hadn’t grown up the church. I had learned a lot already but many of my classmates were much more familiar with the history, tradition and beliefs of the church as well as much more familiar with scripture. Some of the folks in my classes even had undergraduate degrees in religion. I was a communications major who hadn’t even been through confirmation.
It also occurs to me as I look back that spiritually I was a very new Christian. I hadn’t had time to develop the spiritual depth and foundation to support me through the incredible stress of the workload, the complete upheaval of my life, and the loneliness (all my new Christian brothers and sisters were back in Austin as was my fiancé!)
And then just as I was hanging on by a thread, reading more than I had ever read, learning to write at a Master’s Degree level, trying to continue my spiritual journey, my fiancé, Alisha, calls one day crying. After some prodding, she tells me she has a brain tumor. I have to tell you, for both Alisha and I, before that point, we only used “brain tumor” to describe what something wasn’t, as in “Well, at least it is not a brain tumor.” She had a pretty big one and it needed to come out right away. I was back in Austin that night, leaving seminary behind, for a while.
More soon!
peace,
will
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