About two months ago I shared that I had a looming deadline to turn in my ordination paperwork to the District Committee on Ordained Ministry in the UMC in order to be approved to appear before the Conference Board next Spring. That Board will determine whether or not I am commissioned as an appointed elder in the UMC. The good news is even in the middle of a semester I was able to meet their deadline and turned in no less than 72 pages and passed their interview process. Yay!
Just last week I finished another semester (two more to go). This summer and fall will be the last. Come December I will be a Master of Divinity, HA!
Something else quite significant happened last week as well. I was appointed as a part-time pastor to Martha Brown United Methodist Church in East Atlanta Village. Although it is part-time I am the only pastor. My first Sunday is June 27. I am so humbled by this high privilege and pray God will use me in mighty ways. There are some exciting and wonderful things going on there and I look forward to being a part of what God is doing in and through the people of MBUMC and the community.
What I have learned in the last three years of ministry while being a seminary student has value beyond measure. God has taught me so much about who I am, who God is, and who God created me to be. He has taught me about need, and lack, and want, temptation, provision, and providence, grace, love, and power. Some of it I learned in books, most of it I learned in life, by reaching out, by being obedient even when I didn't want to, by looking up, by falling on my face before God. I learned so much in the despair of a late night cancer diagnosis, the desperate cries of parents watching their baby die, the prayers prayed aloud in multiple languages in the frenzy of a hospital trauma room, the praises sung to God in a dirt floor church in Mexico, the tears in the eyes of young Palestinian woman in a souk in Jordan, and so, so, so much more.
God is amazing. God's power, grace, and love are matchless. To God be the glory. Now and forever. Amen!
2 comments:
I am so proud of my sister and I know God is smiling down from heaven on you.
I came across this, this morning when the Holy Spirit was encouraging me. I hope this does the same for you.
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3
Thank you! Ah, yes, the Cloud Of Witnesses. Though Paul was speaking of those who have gone before us I think also of those who surround and pray for us as we pray for them daily...spurring one another on. I used to call my Sunday School class my C.O.W.s (cloud of witnesses) for just that reason. That didn't seem too offended :) They actually gave me a stuffed cow at Christmas one year that moos when you squeeze him.
Can't wait to hear more about how your Saturday vision is coming to fruition!
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