Life on Martin Luther Drive.

"For in him we live and move and have our being." [Acts 17:28]

Hello to those who are still reading this blog! Please forgive me for not being more faithful to regularly updating the blog. I realize it's now the last day in October - Reformation actually or for those of you who participated in the secular holiday, Halloween!  Didn't really get to observe Halloween today other than to see a bunch of decorations adorning walls at the retirement/health care center I stopped by today.  I did sing Martin Luther's solid paraphrase of Psalm 46 hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" in chapel today. Is singing that hymn 4 times in the past two days too much!? Naah! :)

What a whirlwind the last month has been... my studies definitely picked up and I experienced my first crunch time two weeks ago and here I am in the midst of another crunch time part of the quarter - so of course, I am blogging.

Life on Martin Luther Drive is absolutely splendid. Don't get me wrong...it's not perfect, but I love love love it here and am extremely blessed to study in this place. Here are some recent thoughts I'll share of highlights/delights/ learning of life here:

-I'm still desiring an oven to be able to use at my disposal whenever I have the craving to bake bread...but let's face it: grad school doesn't lend itself well to the disposal of tons of free time for as much stress relieving baking I did in Seward last year. I do miss being able to share bread with friends, but God blessed me to use a friend's kitchen two weekends ago and bake 4 loaves of coffee tin English muffin bread and pumpkin dessert.

-I no longer have to sleep with ear plugs...guess I'm just so exhausted my body can block out the loud water/pipe noises I hear in the "natural" background of my dorm room.

-I'm continuing to grow closer to deaconess sisters and gals on this campus. I'm learning. I'm living. I'm growing. I'm serving... and yet waiting to serve. Does that make sense? I'll expand that thought sometime soon - that's a whole subject of its own!

-I've learned to survive on 6-7 hours of sleep. I've only slept through missing 20 minutes of class and of course it happens for my favorite topic of all...Liturgics. I saw it coming though. I went to bed the night before thinking, "Wouldn't it be awful to sleep through this class?" Bam. It happened. I guess though I did get ready in 5 minutes and the prof didn't give me too much grief about it :)  

-I can't for the life of me figure out how long mail takes to get here to Ft. Wayne or how long it takes to get elsewhere. It's weird to not be able to check for mail on Saturdays. I am so my father's daughter. I just get really excited when there's something in the real mail box for me and it's not a filler advertisement from the sem community. So if you ever want to write me... I will write you back. I am so my mother's daughter.

-The Lord continues to teach me even when I think I'm done learning for the day. Love that. I am thankful for learning and pray it will be put to good use one day.

-And there's so much else to include...but I am going to have to pause here now in this list.

It's now week 9 and next week is the last week in the quarter. I'm trying and hoping and praying I get tons of homework related things done this week because one of the best conferences I've been blessed to attend the last two years is next weekend.

The Good Shepherd Institute occurs each fall at the Ft. Wayne seminary and is the annual sacred music and theology conference. Wonderful speakers present papers and there are a myriad of opportunities shared for continuing education in attending this institute for church musicians and pastors currently serving in the field. I pray I am blessed to attend this conference every so often when I am serving in my call as a deaconess somewhere. This year's topic is all about weddings. Considering a lot of my summer was filled with going to weddings and playing at weddings, I'm excited to hear more about the musical end of things!

What else is there to say? So much I wish I could type it all out, but I also don't care to bore any of you. I am still debating the choice between completing the one year program or the two year program. Praying God allows me peace in that decision and that the answer comes sooner than later...part of me wishes that when you have to make a decision in life there needs to be a right answer and a wrong answer! In this case, either route I go I know will be a blessing... but if there was a wrong answer... I think that'd make the decision easier. 

Once classes end next Friday, I look forward to the drive WEST to Iowa and also to Nebraska. To see friends and family. To be refreshed and probably, most likely, to catch on all the sleep I've missed the last 10 weeks.