Some of you wondered what life may be like up here...well, here's a short preview...

And so it begins...

Well, readers.  If you're just joining the program already in progress--let me update you.  I'm starting seminary in less than a week for my Masters of Divinity degree (I'm pretty sure I won't be able to master the Divine in 2 years, but that's the title at least).

Seems like yesterday (or perhaps 4 days ago) when Kyle, Kaly and I were packing up my new Nissan Rogue full of things as Niagara falls was rushing down my back from the 102°F weather.  I've always hated the humidity and muggy sweat I experience in Florida.  Yet, here I am sitting in the 71°F weather of Wayne, PA and I am missing my home state.  Not the weather, of course, but my family and friends, the water, and maybe even the Palm trees.

Thankfully, I have had wonderful company for these past few days.  My cousin Kaly, at the last minute, was able to join me for the road trip.  I got to see wonderful friends along the way who graciously welcomed us and showed us hospitality.  Then, I have been able to spend wonderful time with Missy & Jeff Hoagland since my arrival.  The encouragement their presence has been to me is immeasurable.

This morning, Missy and I attended a worship service and the passage of focus was Mark 6:7-13.  This is where Jesus sent out the disciples to preach and to heal.  What stuck out to me from the minister's sermon was that Jesus--instead of giving exact step-by-step instructions of how to follow--rather tells the disciples how to dress and what kind of houses to stay in.  He sent them out in power, and sent them out in prayer, and sent them out with an understanding that there was a time for study and then there would be a time for costly action.

Ben said to me before I left: "It costs something to follow Jesus, and you're living proof of that."  Yes, there is the literal cost of graduate school, or the cost of travel to get here, or the cost of leaving many things back in FL because they wouldn't fit in the car.  However, we both knew that the cost he was speaking of was stability, comfort, family, friends, familiarity...the cost of saying with all my heart and all my life "Where you go I'll go, what you say I'll say, and what you pray, I'll pray."  It's through no power of my own that I got here, through no provision of my own that I'll get through--but I pray I am found obedient in investing all my "talents" in advancing the Kingdom.  While this is a time where I have been sent to minister and learn, there will soon come a time to be sent again.

As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Phillipi:   "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me...I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which god has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12; 14)

Stay tuned, for surely there will be more adventures to come... :)