Well, I didn't do very well at telling more about my trip to Egypt - which is not to say that I haven't processed a lot! I just didn't get it all written down. As for Egyptians, we have two living in our home right now. Sameh and Liza arrived last Friday from Cairo with their entire life packed into four huge suitcases. (Sameh attended the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo where we stayed when we visited.) They have come to Pittsburgh to live, and Sameh hopes to attend PTS, but in the meantime we've been helping them find an apartment and look for jobs. It looks like they'll end up in an apartment right next door to us! They are very excited!
This last term has been pretty amazing. Between my New Testament and Systematic Theology classes, (let alone through the many relationships that have grown here), God has been making himself known in all sorts of ways.
Our women's weekly prayer group has been so good for my soul. We have new mothers, single women, marrieds, students & spouses - a big mixture who God has thrown together to share our lives and pray for each other through this crazy life at seminary. What a blessing they have been to me. I feel in some ways that I have a few more kids, but then they'll lift me up as a sister-in-Christ and I learn so much from them!
Our NT professor is really crazy. On one hand he knows the NT like none other, and preaches all over the country about how homosexuality is a sin and abomination in God's eyes (which I'm not going to get into here!), but then we'll have these classes when he preaches Jesus and I just feel like he opened my eyes to a whole new reality of who Jesus is.
Our Systematic Theology professor, Dr. Purves, is hands-down amazing. I read one of his books for class and really didn't want to put it down. (So if you have the chance, read Encountering God by Purves and Partee). Really amazing stuff, and again, reintroduced me to a Jesus who made me want to come back and truly sit at his feet for a long while.
I am so thankful for both of these men who rekindled in me a love for Jesus that I had been missing for quite a while (unknowingly). It is such a joy to have Him where he should be again.
I'm in the home stretch of school (so of course, instead of doing homework I'm finally updating the blog)! Can you say P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N? Actually I feel pretty good about where I'm at. I have all my stuff done for theology (minus a take-home final we'll get next Tuesday), I have some catch-up reading and then studying for finals next week for church history and NT, and my 15-page exegesis for Hebrew on Exodus 20:1-12 (1st five commandments) that I have all the material it's just a matter of sitting down and putting it all together.
So pray me through the next couple of weeks!
June will bring our good friends Jon and Kristen Draskovic moving in with us! Jon is a fellow student and Kristen is just starting an 18-month nursing program. We all wanted to "do community" a bit deeper, so this should be an adventure for us all. We're all really excited!
The second week of June I'm taking off with a girlfriend from seminary to SC - Hilton Head - for a week of vegging on the beach, maybe some reading, maybe not, maybe some margaritas... I'm looking forward to relaxing and not much else! (And I'm not feeling too darn guilty since Kim just returned from a two-week trip to CO helping Sean & Megan move into and paint their new home and visiting Sarah, Rob & Rilo!)
Then on 6/20 Kim and I fly to Grand Junction for ten days!!! We'll be there mainly to attend my niece, Sammy's wedding to Chris McSweeney at Maroon Bells in Aspen and reception at Ellen & Bob's orchard in Palisade. I'm also going to preach on the 27th at First Pres.. Very excited to see all the family and reconnect with friends.
This spring we learned that because of our house sales last year I don't qualify for any federal financial aid, and I'm pretty sure I'm losing my scholarship as the stinkin' "C" in my first term screwed my GPA up. Soooo....I've applied for 3 different scholarships and grants and between that and student loans I'm praying that all can be covered.
Kim has also decided to start school in the fall, going to the Community College of Allegheny County for his associates of science to be a pharmacy technician. He's very excited, as am I, and so we'll have FOUR STUDENTS in the household!
Jon and I will both have Field Ed. next year working in areas churches, so that will help with a little bit of income, plus it'll be fun to be back into ministry doing stuff again!
In July and August I'll be taking Greek four days a week, then we'll get a week off before the fall term starts (and I'm hoping that Sarah & Rilo will be coming for a visit then).
So the summer is full! But I'm thankful for the month that will be full of things that "fill my tank!"
I continue to thank God for so many people who have prayed us through this year - after praying us HERE!! You don't know how we feel those prayers and know that we are being carried by them, especially during those tough times - and there were a few this year! Kim and I have learned LOADS and are so thankful how God has drawn us even closer to Himself and each other in the process.
My prayers go out to our many friends that God will bless you with the same richness He has given us this year!
Stickin' close to Jesus...
~Sally
