New Year's Letter 2009

Happy New Years 2009!

I am usually a Christmas letter person, but this year I waited until New Years. Not because I was super busy before Christmas, but because I wanted to have some recent pictures to send of all my nieces whom I had not seen in a year! What would keep me away from them for so long? Well, here is an update on the last year.
By December 07 I was finished with all my coursework for my PhD. Believe it or not, my full-time job from February to August was studying for my comprehensive exams. I was tested in four areas: Congregational Research as Practical Theology, Congregational Leadership, Women’s Developmental Theories, and Ecclesiology. I completed them in mid-August. A week later I successfully defended them before my doctoral committee and was officially pronounced “ABD” (All But Dissertation).

This last year I also added a new title to my resume: Adjunct Professor. Last January I taught Women, the Bible, and the Church with Klyne Snodgrass (New Testament Professor) and in the fall Congregational Leadership with Soong Chan Rah (Ministry). I have also been co-teaching Covenant History class for the denomination’s orientation program. This fall I also had the chance to develop my own online version of the Leadership class and will begin teaching that in February of this year.

Exams meant less travel this year. I did make it to Minnesota in the Spring to visit my friend Kirsten and her family in Ranier. Her mom owns a great little bed and breakfast right on the lake. During the visit, Kirsten opened her new shop featuring art and crafts from various Covenanters including me! Several of my photographs sold as framed prints, coasters, and cards. Kirsten runs the shop in the summer and then brings her stock on the road to various Covenant events or sets up shop for a day in the front room of my house.




Following exams, I finally found time to visit family. In October I spent a week with my mom in Maine. We wandered through nature preserves, walked on the beach, and explored the local cemetery.
We also had a chance to drive down to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents where I was reminded of their love of horses and our shared love of art. My Grandmother and I finally made it to the Barnes Museum. It is an old estate filled from floor to ceiling with paintings mostly from the Impressionist era.





November found me in Nashville with my sister and her family. Sienna was just barely crawling last year and is now running all over the place. She is full of energy and personality at 2 years old. Amber is growing up fast! At 5, she loves to help bake with Mom, read books, sing with her sister, and play dress-up. I got my first spontaneous “I’ll miss you!” out of her as we left this year.

In December, I flew to San Diego to see Jim and his family. My 8 year old nieces and I had been e-mailing about the trip since Thanksgiving. Jordan is quite the artist. She loves to draw and has created a web page of mythical creatures. She also loves reading and can beat us all on Mario Mart (a driving game on the Wii). Brenna started karate and won first prize with the Bo (a long staff). Her dad loves that it helps her focus, because outside of karate Brenna is all emotion and expression. She never stops moving or talking!

The next few months will be focused on completing my dissertation and finding and job. My dissertation will consider how young women’s understandings of gender and pastoral leadership are being formed in a local congregation. I began interviews before Christmas and hope to complete those in January. I am hoping to be done by June 2009. I began searching for jobs in November hoping to find a teaching position that would begin Fall 2009. For many different reasons, none of the positions worked out. While I am still considering teaching positions, I have been wondering if God is perhaps calling me back into church ministry. With that in mind, I have recently also started looking for positions as a pastor in a local congregation. I would ask your prayers for wisdom and discernment during this process and that God would provide work and finances as needed.

The search process has found me entering a season of waiting again… perhaps the PhD is a bit like Christmas, waiting for something new to begin. The job search feels a bit more like epiphany, trying to follow where God is leading with only a star and perhaps a few cryptic prophecies to guide me. May we all be faithful in whatever journey God is leading us on… and may we be blessed with a star that shines bright to guide us.