Arrival in New York!

After a very long week of graduations, an ordination, packing mania, unpacking mania, and many, many long hours on the road, Molly, Martha (Molly's sister) and I have finally arrived at our new place in New York City!

On the morning of Saturday, May 22nd, Molly graduated with a Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary and a Certificate of Sacred Dance from the Center of Art and Religion in Education. That afternoon, I was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament according to the faith and order of the United Church of Christ. The following afternoon, I graduated with my Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion.

Immediately thereafter, the packing insanity began! Martha, who is the most brilliant, organized and helpful sister-in-law a guy could ever wish for, created a packing plan and inventory, giving each box its own number, recording its contents and where it would be stored. A number of friends from seminary and from First Congregational Church of Oakland also stopped by to lend a hand in packing boxes and loading the Penske truck. Very early Thursday morning, we hit the road and started heading east. To say it was not easy for us to leave our community in the Bay Area is an understatement.

On Friday night, we arrived at Martha's house in Enid, Oklahoma. She and her husband Alex graciously agreed to take all of Molly and my furniture, and so the next morning we unloaded the furniture, showered, ate, and drove five hours to Molly's parents' house in Atchison, Kansas. We spent about a week in Atchison, spending time with family, storing the rest of our boxes at the homes of various saints from First Presbyterian Church of Atchison, and meeting with Molly's Committee on Preparation for Ministry (CPM). It was her final meeting with her CPM, and she had to preach a sermon for them as well as be examined on a number of theological, biblical and vocational questions. Of course, she impressed them all, and after only five minutes of deliberation (no one had any reservations), they certified her ready to receive a ministerial call.

The morning after the CPM meeting (wow, that was yesterday!), Molly, Martha and I hit the road again, spending the night with our friend and former housemate Danny in Wooster, Ohio. Danny's hospitality was impeccable, as he prepared us a feast of local Northeastern Ohio cuisine for dinner, and a lovely breakfast this morning. After breakfast, we started the final leg of the journey, and arrived in New York City at about 7pm, where we were met by Pastor Fred Anderson of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, who helped us unload the car, let us into our apartment, and gave us a tour of the building.

The apartment is beautiful and cozy, on the tenth floor of the church building, which is on Madison Avenue and 73rd St. I'll post a few pictures of the place that I took this evening--you can't get a sense of the beautiful city views out our windows, but we'll post pictures of them at a later date.

Thanks to all of you who have been thinking of us and praying us through this journey. We have felt your love buoying us up along the way, and we are so relieved to have arrived!

What will we be doing as Global Ministry Fellows in New York & Zambia?

As many have no doubt heard, Ryan and I have been offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be the Global Ministry Fellows at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. It is a two year position in which a recent seminary graduate in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is ordained as a parish associate at the church in New York, spends a year working at a ministry site in the Global South, takes three months to travel in the Global South, followed by six more months in New York. Since both Ryan and I will be candidates for ordained ministry in our respective denominations, we will be sharing the Fellowship.

Here's the timeline of what we'll be doing:
Ryan will be ordained to this call by the United Church of Christ on May 22 3pm at First Congregational Church of Oakland. We will begin at Madison Avenue Presbyterian this summer--June-August. I will meet with Heartland Presbytery and NYC Presbytery in early June and if the way be clear, on June 27 I will be ordained at First Presbyterian Church of Atchison, Kansas. Over the course of the summer, we will be getting to know the MAPC congregation, preaching there, and being trained for our work abroad at PC(USA) headquarters in Louisville and at a two week program in Chicago.

In early September, we will depart for Kitwe, Zambia, to serve as interns at Theological Education by Extension Zambia (TEEZ), a program which trains tutors to develop strong lay and pastoral leadership for the Zambian Christian community. Because most Zambian church leaders do not have the time or money to take four years off to go to seminary, TEEZ essentially brings seminary to them, allowing them to learn by correspondence in a cohort with other leaders in their area, to which traveling TEEZ tutors are sent. During our time at TEEZ, we will be involved in curriculum revision and development, tutoring and tutor training, and administration of a program which provides theological education to inmates in the Zambian prison system.

Upon completion of our work at TEEZ in early Semptember 2011, we will have three months to travel in the Global South, learning about the ways that Christianity has taken root and blossomed among communities in the Two Thirds World. We will have the opportunity to create our own itinerary, and we will have a choice between continuing east through Asia on the way back home to the States, or returning west through Latin America. We will likely be setting that itinerary in March or April 2011. During that time, we will also plan to visit our families as well as our church communities in California and Kansas in November of 2011.

After our three months of travel, we will return to Madison Avenue Presbyterian for the final six months of the fellowship, where we will be debriefed from our experience in the Global South. As parish associates, we will also have the opportunity to preach and teach about that experience, sharing with the Madison Avenue congregation the new wisdom and understanding it has provided us.

As you can imagine, Ryan and I are both thrilled and overwhelmed by this call. We feel so blessed to know that we have a call right out of seminary, a privilege not many in the PC(USA) or UCC have. We are also extremely excited to have the opportunity to minister together as a team, as this is something we have been itching to do for awhile. We will be sad to leave the wonderful and supportive community we have built in the Bay Area, and a move across the country, and then across the world, will not be without physical, logistical and emotional challenges. At the same time, we are excited and optimistic as we look toward the future, and we will be relying on the support and prayers of our friends and family as we embark on this first adventure of our lives in ordained ministry.

Stay tuned for more updates.

The Blog Is Up

Stay tuned for updates on our lives and ministries in New York, Zambia, and beyond!