Orientation

Jesus went to the wilderness before he began his ministry. Having been without my lifeline to the world, the internet, for the past few weeks I feel almost like I have been in the wilderness as well before I enter my seminary studies in earnest. I did arrive in Dubuque on the evening of the 23rd and almost instantly started to feel at home. I got in and checked into my townhouse unit at about 5:00 and was told while going through the process that at 5:30 every Wednesday till the snow flies that the residents of Seminary Village (were I am living) gather in the middle of the cul-de-sac for a BBQ. I was invited to come, so 30 minutes after pulling into town I was already getting to meet everybody who will be living and attending classes with me. It really is a neat community that I am going to be able to be a part of.
I spent most of the next week feeling a little bit bored as I didn't have a great deal of things to do, but I did get to attend church at a local church on Sunday morning. The pastor of the church is the wife of my academic advisor (and very well respected professor) and the church was very very welcoming. It was a little smaller then I'm used to and in a much older and pretty quaint building, but it was neat. I think I will probably make this my home church while I'm in town, but will probably visit some other churches from time to time to change things up.
My roommates all arrived a few days before orientation started and they are all very neat people but pretty different. I probably have the most in common with Eric, the first to arrive. He is a sports fan like myself and will only be living on campus a few days a week. He works in a coop of Methodist churches in Illinois and will travel between his home there and here. He is married and has a very sweet wife who is also studying to get a masters degree back at home in teaching while Eric is here. The second roommate to arrive came a few nights ago from the Sudan. Samuel is probably the quietest of the four of us but has had to hurdle many barriers to arrive here to study. He will be here for only one year, but I have a feeling that I will keep in good contact with him when he returns back to his home at the end of the year. He has left behind his wife and 4 kids to be here. I have seen photos and they are a beautiful family. Samuel is part of the Anglican Church in the Sudan and has already accomplished a great deal of important things in his ministry there. I know he will do great things someday. The last roomie to arrive is Gabriel who has come here from Ghana. As Samuel is the quietest one of us, Gabriel is by far the most vocal and animated of the group. He is very interested in music and is always in a very joyous mood. He is just getting over his jet lag and has also gone through a great deal to get here as well. He is actively recruiting me to venture to Ghana someday to see his home. He also has left a family behind with a wife and son back home.
Yesterday was the first day of orientation for the seminary program and life has been a bit of a blur the past few days. We have had a chapel service the beginning of each day so far and will again tomorrow. It is soo incredible to have worship play such a key element of every day. We will also have chapel every Tue, Wed and Thur while school is in session. I really do look forward to having that guidance while I'm here. Yesterday was spent mostly with the basics of school. We did a tour of the library and received our access codes to the internet. We also were given information on many of the programs offered here at the seminary. I am really seriously thinking about running for the student government here, and I think I would have a very solid chance of being elected. We also did some Ministry Profile tests yesterday which took way too long (500 questions long), but I do look forward to seeing the results from the test (imagine something like a very very very in depth personality profile test). We finished the day splitting up to have desserts at the home of selected faculty members. I was able to attend dessert at the home of Dr. Thompson and her husband not far from campus. She will be my Greek professor this year and I had a very fun time. Today was dedicated more to preparing for classes, but we started the day after chapel with time to share with the rest of the group what we had to leave behind to attend seminary. It was a pretty emotional time for some people and it was neat to glean a part of other student’s life as they shared. I shared 3 photos showing the youth group at Mountain View, me and the guys at a baseball game last year, and Sassy. The rest of the day we met with our advisors, registered for classes, did an interview portion to the tests we took yesterday, and purchased our books for the semester. Buying the books finally really gave the realization of just how much of a masters program this is going to be. I was not able to purchase all of the books I needed because the book store ran out of a few of the titles I need, but I still came home with 23 books to read this semester. They say they figure for every credit hour you take, you will have 3 hours of homework a week. I'm taking 16 credits so figure about 48 hours of homework to go with 16 hours of class time to go with my desire to find a part time job for about 15 hours a week. I'm going to be a busy boy.
Tomorrow is the last day of orientation and we are going to be doing some team building at a low ropes course near the campus (I'm not supposed to know the activity, but.....). Following that will be a picnic lunch and then a final weekend to be able to rest a bit. I'm really looking forward to everything, and for maybe the first time in my entire life, I'm really anticipating classes starting.