More Pictures from Franklin Park Conservatory

Yes, this is actually in Columbus! =)


 

Butterfly at Franklin Park Conservatory

I wrote an earlier post about going to the Franklin Park Conservatory and seeing the butterflies. Well, here's a photo from that visit...

Internship

In my last post, I wrote something about playing practical jokes on the president of Trinity. Well, he’s more than capable of playing (or at least trying to play) them on me too. So today, it started.

I’ve been expecting this for a while now, and so now it has started. Our beloved president has started to try and play the internship card. Last year, he tried this with my friend Kim and succeeded a bit. He kept walking around and telling her that he knew where she was going. It drove her nuts as she tried to figure out where she was going all the while he was rubbing it in that he knew. So I knew he’d start with me this year... and today was the day. He asked me if I was going to Portland. I shrugged my shoulders and said that I didn’t know. I then asked him if he knew... his response was, “I will never tell.” I said I didn’t want him to tell me, but I was just curious if he knew. “I can keep a secret” was his next response. My next response was, “Me too.”

I left his office and two minutes later he popped into the office I was in and asked me if I was going to Portland. I think the next time he does it, I’m going to say something like, “I was thinking that I might like to go to Chagrin Falls.” Or, “How about Jamestown?” I could just keep mixing it up. Because honestly... I trust the process and the decision has already been made. I will find out on April 12 where I’m going and I’m ok with that. Plus, Wally, my advisor, is on the contextual ed committee and he said that the committee was pleased with the placements. I trust him and I trust the rest of the committee. He knows me pretty well and I’m sure that if there were a problem with my placement, he would have said something. So, I’m confident it will be fine, regardless if I wind up in Portland or not.

So that’s the story. April 12 - then I’ll let you know where I will be next year.

Kate

Christian Life

There are times here at Trinity I see an image that strikes me as descriptive of what it means to be a community in Christ. I had such an experience today, an experience that made me pause a bit but also allowed me to remember just how counter-cultural Christianity actually is.

We have chapel at Trinity every weekday. Today, we had a healing service and three people prayed over and anointed those who wanted prayers of healing. During chapel today, our president, Mark Ramseth, got up and kneeled in front of one my fellow students. As I watched Patrick place his hands on Mark’s head, I realized, this is the picture of community in Christ. The president (a title that typically holds a lot of importance for people in the real world) is kneeling in front of a student (who most people would place in a lower place) asking for prayers of healing. But here’s the thing, at that moment, Mark wasn’t President Ramseth kneeling in front of first year student Patrick. Instead, he was Mark, another person, asking another person for prayers of healing. That, my friends, is counter-cultural and a perfect example of what it means to be a Christian, a Christ follower, and in community.

In some respects, it is interesting that I even notice this because our president is incredibly accessible. He’s ok with us calling him Mark and I tend to play practical jokes on him... granted, I also respect him and the office he holds, but I like the fact that he understands he is another person. We can have fun together and play jokes on each other, but when it comes time for business, we can do that too.

Anyway, that’s my reflection for the day. More later I’m sure.

Kate

New Term

And so I think it is going to be a very good quarter. I have had three of my four classes (the fourth is once a week on Thursday afternoons) and so far I love all three. Two are exegetical classes, one on Romans and the other on Revelation. I love having both of these classes, partially because I’m a big Bible geek. But additionally because Revelation is a huge topic right now and Romans is like the core Lutheran text. Both classes are taught by my advisor, Wally Taylor. He is going to be sick of me by the end of the term... I see him every morning for class in addition to I-group and he’s now technically my boss too. Good thing we get along pretty well.

My third class is Lutheran Identity (Lutheran ID) which I think will be an excellent class. We are diving into the confessions of the Lutheran church and much of that becomes great theological ponderings which I love. So that class should be good. The only class that is still a mystery is Pastoral Care and Counseling. It meets once a week on Thursday afternoons (at least my section) for three and a half hours. As much as I love pastoral care, I think it should be a good class. Plus, I’ve heard good things about the professor (one I have amazingly not had yet). But it remains to be seen.

As much as this week is making the term look like a good one, this week is also busy. I managed to schedule myself to preach twice this week at my MIC site. Once tomorrow (Wednesday) night at our midweek Lenten service and then again on Sunday. I’ve got my sermon for tomorrow written, but now I need to get working on my Sunday sermon. Quick turn around, but I figure it will give me the experience of preaching twice in the same week which will happen when I am in the parish. So how do you handle writing two sermons in the midst of everything? That’s what I’m working on now. So far, it’s working out... but we’ll see how the Sunday sermon goes. =)

I’ll be posting more later, but for now, it’s bed time.

Kate

End of Break

And so break is pretty much over. I have a few hours left before my 8:30 class... but I’m going to be spending at least seven of them sleeping and the others will be spent getting ready to go to class. In some respects, I’m sad because I’ve enjoyed being on break, but really I’m still excited about this quarter and so in some ways it is good break is coming to a close.

I had the opportunity to do some neat things over break. After spending several days doing a lot of nothing, I went to Canton, OH to the National Football Hall of Fame with some friends. It was pretty cool, definitely worth at least one trip. Friday was of course St. Patricks Day, so some of us went out for some green beer - that was fun.

Saturday I went to the Franklin Park Conservatory. I went with two people from Montana, a mother and daughter, who are here because the daughter, Hillary, has been ill and one of two specialists she needs is at Children’s Hospital here in Columbus. Additionally, they are friends of Mark Ramseth, the president of Trinity. I also went with Linda Koch who is Mark’s secretary and a friend of mine. Anyway, Franklin Park Conservatory pretty much focuses on horticulture and has a bunch of different plants in different types of ecosystems inside the main building. They also, every year, release newly hatched butterflies in one of the parts of the building each day. We went for that and even got to hold some of the butterflies. It was awesome. I have pictures which I will put up eventually... just probably not tonight.

That’s probably it for now... look for more as the quarter gets into full swing.

Kate

Break

Breaks during this year have kind of made me wonder about myself a bit. What I mean is I don’t feel like I’m truly able to take a break from theology/ministry stuff. Even after I finished my exegetical for Luke on Monday night, I have found myself reading things (particularly the books I just bought for the upcoming quarter) and looking at all the recommendations Amazon has for me based on what I’ve bought and what I own (which is mostly theology/ministry related).

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve taken some time off and spent quite a bit of time this break watching 24 on DVD in addition to some NCAA basketball and other shows that I sometimes watch. I’ve also gone out with friends some evenings and tomorrow (really today I suppose) I’ll be going up to Canton, OH to go to the National Football Hall of Fame. Then, because tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, I believe some of us will be consuming green beer somewhere in the evening. Even with all of this, I can’t seem to get away from wanting to read, wanting to learn as much as possible.

I have mixed feelings about all of this. On one hand, I’m excited about this upcoming quarter and the classes I’m taking... so in some respects it is no wonder that I’m reading already for that stuff. On the other hand, however, I’m worried that I won’t be completely rested when I start classes again and that will lead to burn out somewhere down the line. I wonder a bit about my ability to get away from work and what that means for me taking care of myself so that I don’t burn out. Now, the more I think about this last possibility, the less I worry about it. I know that I am taking time away from academics (obviously, I’ve gone out and watched a bunch of TV this week). And, I’m excited about classes and what I’ll be learning... I’m not reading out of a sense of duty or because I have to get it done, I’m reading because I want to. That’s got to count for something I suppose. I admit that I’m a geek and I love to absorb and learn as much as possible - so I guess it is natural I would want to read as much as possible, even over break.

So that’s it for right now... I do need to get serious about working on a couple of sermons though. I’m preaching both Wednesday and the following Sunday in addition to starting classes next week. Assuming I figure out where I’m going with these two sermons now, it shouldn’t be too bad. But we’ll see what happens. =)

More later.

Kate

It's been a very long time!!

I know it’s been a while since I last updated and this means it is probably due for a long update. We’ll see how long this one is, for a variety of reasons. But rest assured, even if this one isn’t all of what probably needs to be written, there will be more.

So when I last wrote we were heading into the end of the quarter. Now, we’re on spring break, the quarter is over and I made it through, but not without some trials along the way. Shortly after I last wrote, I got really sick... again. I had something that manifested itself much like what I had back in December. I woke up two weeks ago (today actually) with nasty chest congestion, extremely tired, and a slight fever. After convincing myself that I shouldn’t go to class (it’s hard to let myself miss class, but the fever convinced me), I went back to bed hoping to wake up and go to my second class. I woke up a couple hours later and took my temperature hoping it had gone down... no such luck. In fact, it had gone up a bit more. At that point I just gave up, e-mailed all my professors and went back to bed for the rest of the day.

Wednesday was a bit better, Thursday was worse because Wednesday night I didn’t get much sleep. All of this set me back in my workload (which was already astronomical) by several days. So, I asked for some help and got an extension on a paper I wound up writing and turning in a day late and then finally my Luke exegetical. I finished everything up over the weekend and early last week except the Luke exegetical which I finally finished last night. I still occasionally have a cough, but really I’m pretty much back to 100 percent now. It did take me about a week and a half to finally feel human again... the stupid illness moved back and forth between my head and my chest for a while. But now I’m better and everything is done, so that’s good.

Then, this past Thursday, I went out to Planks for some karoke with some friends. Around 11:30, in the middle of a song, all of a sudden the power went out. Turns out that a power pole went down. It seems to me that the transformer on the top of the pole shorted out some how and broke the pole right below the transformer which put stress on the bottom of the pole. Others have said that it was lightening, but we didn’t hear any thunder and trust me, we would have heard it if it was lightening. Anyway, we were there for an extra hour and a half because it was right out back where we had parked and they wouldn’t let us anywhere near the car until quite a bit later. I took a picture with my phone... I hope it uploads. If not, then I’ll put it up another way, probably tomorrow.

For now I’m spending break lounging around and working a bit. I’m on call at OSU tonight and I worked in the lab today and will work tomorrow. The cool thing is now that my exegetical is done, I took the second season of 24 to the lab with me and watched four episodes in the four hours I was there today. Easy job - I get paid to watch DVDs!

That’s probably enough for now... look for more later. I hope to get back in the swing of things, but the illness plus school work just wiped out my journaling.

Kate