Wow, it is hard to believe it’s been almost three months since I have last written. There is so much that could be said I am sure but life has honestly been a whirlwind. Heather and I gave up after about the second week of the semester thinking life might slow down. While life has been wonderful and we feel so fortunate, life has been far more crazy that we would have ever expected or desired.
Since my last post in August, I had staff training with our new North Village staff. If you remember a while back I mentioned that we moved to the North Village residential community and I am now serving as the chaplain there. I took the new position for a variety of reasons, many of which I new would challenge me and cause me to grow. While the semester has been good, it has been as challenging and growth filled as I imagined that it would be.
Heather did an absolutely phenomenal job directing the “Be the Change Missions Conference.” This was the third time she directed it and it was truly the best of the three that she oversaw. All of our speakers and practitioners did a wonderful job and all of the events were attended much better than in years past. The key note speaker was a pastor from Bend, Oregon named Ken Wytsma. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to spend a week with him and one of the associate pastors because I will be doing my mentoring this summer at the church they lead. We are excited to be part of a vibrant church community in the midst a beautiful part of the country that we have not yet been to.
One of the courses I am taking this year is called Clinical Pastoral Education. One component of the course is classroom time at the hospital and individual supervision. The largest and most challenging part of the course is that I am on call at Hillcrest Hospital one evening a week from 7pm to 7am. To give you just a brief snapshot of what this is like, while on duty I am physically present at the hospital, I do rounds, respond to trauma calls, and help lead the process with the family when there is a death. This has by far been the most incredible experience of my life. It is far more difficult than I ever could have imagined and yet I feel I have grown more in these two months than I have in my entire life. One area of ministry I am exploring is hospital or hospice chaplaincy and this has given me a clear picture of what that would be like. This course goes until April so I have a lot of learning ahead of me.
We have a lot of exciting opportunities we are looking forward to over the next month or two. On November 13th we’ll go down to San Antonio, TX as I am running the Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon. This will be my second marathon and I am thrilled that Heather is able to attend this one to support me. The following weekend some of my family is coming down to attend the Baylor/OU game with us. We’ll be spending Thanksgiving in Dallas and OKC with my family and for Christmas we’ll be traveling to North Carolina to spend it with Heather’s mom, step-dad, and several of her siblings. We are also excited to have the opportunity to travel to Guatemala over New Year’s to take part in a mission trip with our new church First Baptist Church Waco.
As part of Heather’s masters of social work program, she is doing her primary internship at FBC Waco. As a result, we transitioned to attending church there and it has been such a blessing. I have even joined the choir, which has been a great experience for me. The lead pastor, Matt Snowden, is truly one of the most amazing pastors I have had the privilege of learning from. He has been an incredible mentor for Heather and she is having a wonderful experience putting her social work skills into practice in a church environment. In the spring semester Heather will be working 40 hours a week at FBC Waco and part of her research and work includes the trip to Guatemala we’ll be going on.
We’ll, I think that is the long and the short of what we’ve been up to over the past two months. When we have time, we still enjoy spending time with our friends, going to the movies (we went to a drive in!), and I still love to play disc golf. Please keep us in your prayers as we attempt to finish our time well (we still have about a year and a half). We feel so fortunate to have had this opportunity in seminary but I think we are both ready for the next season of life, including starting a family of our own. Gulp. I never thought I’d write that!
If for some reason you find yourself passing through Waco, let us know because we’d love to see you!
Blessings,
Chad and Heather
