Check In

Yesterday (Friday) was check-in day at the seminary. Although I will be staying with my family at Jeff and Julie Miller’s house through Saturday night, I suspect the check-in needs to be on a day when the administrative offices are open. My room is at Metzger Hall; it will be home for me until our family’s apartment in the Woods opens up.

The past week in Missouri (with my parents before and now with the Miller’s) has been an “interesting” weather experience. We have hunkered down through two tornado-producing storm systems; the first was in Rogersville, the second during check-in at the seminary!

After checking-into the room and running an errand to the campus switchboard, I dropped by the Admissions Office. (On my way to the switchboard, I had seen the admissions staff gathered around a computer. The last time I had seen that was a week before, when the staff was tracking a tornado that had been passing to the north and east of St. Louis.) They told me that a tornado warning was in effect and the system was about to hit Clayton; they urged us not to get back on the road to return to the Millers' house.

So we hung out in the commons of Metzger Hall with Jason, the generous soul who volunteered to be my “welcome to the seminary” partner. He is a fourth year seminarian who lives at the other end of the hall. He sat with us through the whole storm and invited us to join him for dinner at the cafeteria afterwards. (For those who take a dim view of cafeteria food, you should know that the CSL cafeteria is actually quite good!) Mike, a second year seminarian who also lives at Metzger, joined us for dinner, too!

Although the tornado systems passed to the south of the seminary, the rain definitely did not. The first picture below is of Heather and the kids in front of the Luther statue after dinner; the second is the price I paid for rejecting Jason’s generous offer of his umbrella after dinner.