Very Thought It Would Happen

Well Dear Friends,

I never thought this day would come but I am now a Doctor of Ministry. This has been a long, hard road and I really thought about giving up (several times). Still not sure what I think about the entire process but I never like to entertain the idea of quitting at anything, so I am glad that this part of my journey is finished. I don't know if I would have made any of this without the love and support of people that follow me on this blog. This has been my "safe" outlet, a place to vent my fears and frustrations and for that I thank you all.

Now I'm still in the process of waiting on my new appointment and I am not the only one. The process is moving at a snail's pace this year. It is frustrating several of the 'elder' elder's..... who are also still waiting to hear about their appointments, so I am not alone. I am sure there are several very reasonable explanations for the delay, but it is of no comfort to those of us who are sitting in the dark.

Still excited about my upcoming Ordination though. I really would never recommend working on a doctorate while working towards ordination at the same time to ANYONE. It worked out for me but it has not been the easiest course that I could have travelled on.

Now, as I sit watching the potential for yet another tornado hit my state, I ask that you pray for everyone in the path of these storms. And thank you for following my blog over these years. It has made a difference in the life of this pastor.

Time Off, Not

Well, I have spent my two days off hard at work on my dissertation. I really am getting sick of this piece of work and I'm the one that wrote it. Comma's will never be one of my best friends. It is the nit picky portions of this that are driving me crazy. I really will have everything fresh in my head by next week when I have to defend it. So this is a good thing, I suppose. I plan on having a good time next week-end :)

On to other news: Still waiting on the news about my new appointment. It is lucky that I have other distractions or I would be a basket case. I actually think that I am less stressed than a lot of my other friends. I am worried that Ryss will have to move during the middle of High School and she is worried about that too. I don't know enough about the Conference to really care about where I am geographically.

Approved!!

My doctoral project has been approved. Now I just have to go to Houston and have my oral defense. Hurray!!!!

This and That

Research Chapter was accepted......hurray!! So now I am waiting for them to read the entire thing (again) and tell me when I have to go to Houston to defend. Hopefully, that will go well. It has been a good distraction during this season of UM Appointments.

The cabinet is taking a long, lonnnggggg time telling all of us where we will be appointed. Now I have plenty of free time to obsess over this new church that I will be going to serve. Ryss was gone for the week-end and if I hadn't had three novels to read (Nelson DeMille, who writes really long novels) and a fun evening with friends, I would have had even more time to get into full obsession mode. Luckily, I had a sermon to preach this morning and my District Superintendent was there so that gave me a totally different distraction.

The week-end has felt like it came in segments. Times of complete silence (home alone reading) followed by incredibly busy social interactions. Ryssa being gone really reinforced this perception. So I did something kind of weird. I made a coffee-date with a single pastor a few towns over. I haven't really went on a date in close to fourteen years. I have been busy and really not interested. It might be a disaster but hopefully not.