Celebration

I never valued the happy sense of anticipation about my birthday until I met my husband who never learned to really celebrate those moments in life. My mom made every birthday (and holidays) seem special and the feeling continues even though she is far away and can’t make me my chocolate cake. You may have guessed that today is my birthday. That’s right, 41 years young as of 11:23 am Ankara, Turkey time (that’s 1:23 am my time and 4:23 am my Mom’s time)

In honor of it, I’ve decided to finally have the courage to share that I’m applying to seminary with the goal of healthcare chaplaincy. It’s been a torturous year of feeling that I was stuck and needed to move on in my life. I tried to force myself to choose the practical route of seeking an MBA (even took the GMAT exam) and found that I was just becoming more miserable. It was after attending a recent UU Women’s Retreat weekend that I finally gave myself permission to pursue my long-time dream of ministry. I’ve been exploring schools online for years envisioning the day that I would be able to pursue my dreams. I’ve wandered by the theological school booths at GA every year and teared up at the Service of the Living Tradition. Listening to the retreat keynote speaker describe her experiences as a hospice chaplain, I saw my vague sense of direction coalesce into a concrete career path. All the research I had done about which school I wanted to attend made it easy to move forward. I’m working on my application to the Masters of Divinity program at Earlham and hope to finish the essays this weekend.

[The picture is of the women who attended the women's retreat from my church. I'm far-right, bottom row.]

UU Soul

Earlham has a low-residency/distance learning option with a combination of two-week intensives 2-3 times a year and online classes. I would start this August with an intensive.

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Maridmitch

Dear Pam,

Will you relocate to Indiana or do work online toward your degree (or a combination of both)?

http://good-sam.com/

is the Good Samaritan Society's web site. It is the largest not for profit nursing home organization in the USA. It is loosely affiliated with the ELCA denomination.

I know through your Mom some history about your United Methodist upbringing.

My husband graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta--30 years ago practically this very weekend, I think! We lived just east of Atlanta for the three years he attended seminary. We loved it there (warmer weather!) but chose to come back to Iowa for appointment.

Lord Willing, we hope to retire in the Southeast US about nine years from now.

Thanks, Mom and Marilyn :)

Wow, I didn't realize that your husband is a chaplain. Working in a nursing home is one of the paths I've been especially thinking about. Do you know that I was raised United Methodist in Bethesda? I did everything at our church: children's choir, adult choir, acolyte, summer bible school assistant. I have especially fond memories of my summer work camp experiences.

Completing my MDiv is expected to take about 5 years, but part of that will be the units of Clinical Pastoral Education. In the meantime I'm looking at volunteer positions and plan to enjoy the journey as much as getting my goal.

Happy 41st Birthday a day late. Congratulations on your decision to enter M. Div. Program. My husband is chaplain at the Good Samaritan Society's nursing home in Davenport. He's an ordained United Methodist pastor.

When will you start classes and how long will your degree take to earn?