Ahhhhh The Memories!

One year ago I attended LSTC's seminary sampler, and today starts this year's fall session of the sampler. For me, it was two days well spent, and I hope this year's attendees find their time well spent also. My journey included visiting three seminaries that are fairly close to home in Madison, WI. While I had my mind made up as to which seminary I was going to attend, life happened; and our family was given dad's diagnosis of Alzheimer's. My sisters and I could finally name all the odd things dad was doing since mom's death 18 months earlier, but we knew we needed to work with dad to keep him safe and independent as long as possible. Seminary was put aside as my sisters and I worked with various agencies, learned how complex the paperwork and waiting periods are and also learned that people of meager financial means have so few options to truly keep their loved one safe.

Working with these organizations, we did find a fantastic place for dad to live, and he is still there. We know that he is cared for, far better than any one of us girls could, so I went ahead and re-visited seminary. By this time I changed how I would 'do school' and pretty much had my mind made up to attend LSTC full time, and go home on the weekends. But I never lived on campus because I got my undergrad while working full time, so I wanted to experience seminary life. So I attended the seminary sampler last fall. From the initial emails from staff, I pretty much had confirmation that attending seminary here was the correct decision. And with every encounter, my “yes” was simply reaffirmed. Whether it was meeting professors, current students, and even potential students, some who are now my classmates, LSTC was the place I was called to be for my seminary studies, and this fantastic journey to become an ordained pastor.

This morning's sermon title was “Learning Obedience”, and I was happy to hear the pastor say that he too has a hard time with the word. Something about the word simply rubs me the wrong way, but this morning I thought of it differently, and realized that last year's seminary sampler was one of the first steps I took in obeying my call from God and saying YES to seminary. Then again, LSTC makes it hard to NOT obey my call from God!

Fall Foliage by Gina Kresic

If anyone is on the fence regarding seminary, if you are thinking ordination, Phd studies, or other Master's level coursework- I cannot recommend highly enough the seminary sampler. Don't worry if you didn't make it to this one, there is another one in March 2013!

Shalom!