2008

I'm already behind for the new year, from my little undone tasks from over the break. I started this post on New Year's Day or maybe the 2nd. I wanted to fill in some gaps, but here's a brief sketch of my 2008:

Completed second and third semesters of M.Div. program at Vanderbilt
-Spring 2008
-Fall 2008 (1/2 of my M.Div. program complete!)
Took on Co-Chair-ship of Ecological Concerns - super-fun
Took on Vice-Chair-ship of United Methodist Student Association - super-important
Still eligible to keep my scholarship - sigh of relief

Ministry
-Completed 2 more semesters of my Calvary UMC internship
-Spring 08: continued to observe, assess, participate at Calvary - and analyzed my leadership role through my Leadership and Ministry course
-Fall 08: took on Missions/Outreach/Evangelism as my focus area at Calvary, preached at Calvary and at home church FUMC Bridgeport, TX
-living into my "certification" phase of the candidacy process

Went to Washington, DC 3 times:
-MoSAIC/OnFire retreat - MoSAIC is Methodist Students, Seminarians, and Young Adults for an All-Inclusive Church, and OnFire is Young Methodist Progressives; the weekend led to a semi-leadership role of OnFire, I and others recorded a video posted on youtube as our witness to the lgbtq advocacy movement in the UMC, met lots of great people
-Young Adult Seminarians Network (YASN) spring meeting - I heard they needed a representative from a non-UM seminary, so I told them I was up for it, and now I'm on for the rest of my seminary career
-YASN Nat'l Gathering - we had an awesome seminar on the racism of Native American mascots, which led to a first-hand experience in cultural conflict, which then led to a weekend of reconciliation

Went to Latin America twice:
-Peru - young seminarians and clergy people - amazing!, I went as an interpreter, and we got to visit a lot of the ministries that are happening through the Methodist Church of Peru in the Chincha area, especially as they recover from the earthquake of 2007
-Guatemala - accompanied and translated for a group of Disciples of Christ youth who are neighbor to my intern church - these youth are amazing, the people of Guatemala are wonderful, and the work of the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) is tremendous

Had a busy summer:
(in addition to YASN Nat'l Gathering, Peru, and Guatemala)
-Took Eco-Theologies course at Vandy - great, but too short; wrote my final paper on the impanation of Christ (God made bread, vs. God made flesh, which is incarnation)
-Worked on an urban farm - West Nashville Community Farm - it was all lovely and educational until the next event of the summer happened
-Had a wreck, broke wrist, had surgery - a plate and 4-ish screws are permanently installed in my arm now. No metal detector worries, though.
-Fell in love with Nyasha - ok, so this probably shouldn't just be in a list of events that happened this summer, but where else should I put it? - its own category, probably; most know Nyasha as Lovemore, we went to Hendrix together but have only been together since July 2008
-Taught Spanish to 3-5 year olds - they're adorable, but crazy-rambunctious; I taught through a lady who has her own "business" of sorts teaching Spanish at pre-Kindergartens - Bravo Ninos

Friends/Community:
-Vanderbilt friendships have continued to develop, which has been delightful. My skipping-worship-for-bagels-and-coffee, happy hour, Friday night dinner, porch-sitting of every kind ventures are always a relief from hectic paper-writing, test-taking, procrastinating, and worrying about the world and my own procrastination.
-On the community: I moved houses - from the little to the big house. I can no longer jaunt down the alley-way to visit Diane and Linzie, but it was still a good move - if "community" is ever to form it would happen here, and my room is gargantuan. I continue to call this semi-intentional, because we've still never discussed as an entire group what community means, why we're living together, or dug into any meaty issues together. However, we have plans to have a conversation about community in each house which will hopefully eventually result in a second half of each of our covenants.
-Jon and Melina Mendez got married in April in NYC - all the interns were able to make it!
-Rebecca and Carlos just had their little baby Jonah Bernardo on New Year's Eve!
-Laura and Philip got married in July - and most all of the girls were able to make it and have slumber party time together!
-Abby and Andy got married at the end of August!

Things (which at least seem to be) on the horizon:
-Continued conversations about intentional community with Tim and his cohort, and others. Things should be happening in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in north Nashville soon-ish, something might be happening in east Nashville some time with Ryan, et al, and I've chatted with someone at a certain organization with the initials of UR which might try to establish an intern community in the near-ish future. All of this looks exciting. We might try to have a reading group of some sort with students and others from the Nashville community who are interested in intentional community and are wanting to explore it further.
-Continued conversations about prophetic ministry. I still want to chisel off the Schola Prophetarum sign cemented into a corner just above the ground in the courtyard, covered with leaves and other brush - and display it in a prominent place in front of the school. I believe we'll be conversing corporately about prophetic ministry in field education this semester. And prophecy seemed to be a theme in most of my field ed writing, so I look forward to continuing to explore that aspect of my own ministry.
-I'd still love to do a project in my hometown for a summer - and I think this summer might be a good summer to do it. I don't know what it'll look like - inter-religious stuff, photography, agricultural/ecological/food stuff, mission networking stuff, helping out at the church stuff, etc.
-Imagining post-graduation future with Nyasha, since he won't be in Nashville next academic year
-Cool stuff brewing with Eco-Concerns
-Cool stuff brewing at Calvary
-Exciting courses for the spring - 2 Theology courses (Constructive and United Methodist), Ethics with Snarr, and Field Ed - it might be my fave semester of my program, if all goes well

Lots of stuff. Why? Because I'm a busy-body. Here we go with 2009!