Little Wonders

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about the seminary community is the constant flood of unexpected encouragement and support.

I do not want to diminish the importance of regular supporters who express their love for our lives and labors through their prayers and gifts - these are invaluable as well! But these are commitments that faithful Christians have made and told us about. We never take these for granted, but they are of a different character. In one sense, we "expect" them.

Here are a handful:

* There have been countless "short-notice babysitting swaps" between us and other families out in the Woods. People bounce between apartments and are quick to supplement your refrigerator when you are missing something you need to save the trip to the market. Kids bounce in and out of the apartments (especially during the summer) and the parents keep an eye on one another's kids. I have seen others' loan one another cars to solve the "single family car problem" when it comes up. I would love to list all of the examples we have experienced or observed, but there isn't time or space! It would end up being a directory of everyone living in the Woods!

* In the middle of the quarter, I was struggling with the question of being here and feeling wholely inadequate. At that point, every waking moment had been devoted to studying if it wasn't spent in class or having meals with Heather and the kids. Despite this, I had received a round of "grades" that were ... um ... not what I was accustomed to. Dr. Utech, my professor for Pastoral Ministry, stayed after class to talk to me about it one day. He did not try to blow it off. He did not try to diminish the significance of my concerns. He encouraged me with the knowledge that I had been encouraged in this path by my church, my district, the synod and my peers. He observed that I seemed to be going through one of those periods of heightened "tentatio" (i.e. temptation). He shared with me from his own experiences in the earliest years of his seminary education. At no time did it seem like he had any other place he'd rather be. It is a great joy that we are being formed by men who are themselves pastors.

* One of the seminary's evaluation techniques is an instrument called the Millon Index of Personality Styles (MIPS) test. While the feedback provided by this instrument was accurate (based my own results and my classmates' observations), it was blunt and picked at some real scabs. Most of us walked out of the sessions where we receieved our results in a state of shock. Tough love, indeed! Mine poked right at those areas that had given me the greatest pause when contemplating even coming to seminary in the first place. It was as though the test results were saying: "You were right to worry about this! What ARE you doing here?" A week of thinking them over helped to soften the impact somewhat; most of us realized the question was now "Okay, what have we learned and what are we going to do about this?" But the best encouragement I received was from Professor Egger, with whom I read Hebrew on Monday and Thursday mornings. When I shared my distress about the feedback I had received, he said: "Remember that you are the same person today that you were when you walked in to receive the results of the test." Did I mention that the faculty here are top notch lovers of God's children?

* There is a couple on campus (Concordia Seminary also forms women for service as Deaconnesses) that I met over the summer. Both of them (their names are JJ and Sarah) are wonderful people who seem to be everywhere doing everything. (In another walk of life, I would have called these two a "power couple", but the label does not fit two such servants.) Early in the quarter they offered to come by and watch David and Emily so Heather and I could have an evening out. (How many places do YOU know that turn up free babysitting?) We had a good time; they had a good time with the kids; I think David and Emily are ready to trade up for a new set of parents!

* I received an email from Pastor Adam Parvey, the new pastor at my parents' church in Springfield, MO. He wrote mid-way through the quarter to introduce himself, ask how he could be praying for us, and asking how things were going in general. As a recent seminary graduate himself, he is naturally very understanding about the experience here. But he wrote us! And he's praying for us! Someone I've never met is praying for my family and me. God's gifts never cease.

John 21:25 (ESV)
25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.