...and I'm halfway there

Spring Break!  Which really means time to work on mid-terms. I really only thought I was a week in, it's amazing how busy I have been.  I increased my class load this semester, but it's been good.

I only had a short visit home and then came back for a week long class titled "Leadership for Community Development."  It was a really great class, we learned a lot of skills for community development.  I think one of the most important pieces is constant emphasis on change coming from the inside out.  That is, we can't walk into a community and tell them what they need to do to be "better."  Rather, we have to listen to each person, their needs, and find out what they are willing to do in order to change.  It's a required course in order to do a Community of Shalom internship, which I interviewed for last week.  Prayers would be very appreciated for that, I'd be thrilled to have the opportunity.

This semester, I'm taking New Testament Studies, Pastoral Formation, Religion and the Social Process, Evangelism in the UMC, and Shame and Grace in the 21st Century.   I'm really loving them.  Shame and Grace is actually a PhD course, so it's a ton of reading and it is really psychology-based reading, but I'm keeping up pretty well.  Religion and the Social Process is a look at various groups in society that face oppression and the way religion both contributes and stops these problems.  It's intense, for sure, but completely necessary.  My professor for New Testament studies is an amazing scholar and I'd love to grow up to be just like her.

I'm still working around 20 hours a week.  So yes, my life is full.  But I'm happy, and that's what matters most.

I'm starting to think more and more about what comes next. I need to figure out internship opportunities I want to take, if I want to graduate early, what I do with my life IF I graduate early, all of that fun stuff.  It's stressful, but the good kind of stressful.  I have a lot of opportunities and I'm constantly looking to clarify my call.

I did have SOME fun over break, I went to Michigan to visit Jessica and her husband Audie.  I don't see her anywhere close to often enough, so it was really wonderful to have a stretch of time in which we got to do anything and nothing.  I visited the Michigan Brewing Company, the Michigan State Dairy Store (which has AMAZING ice cream that is made by students!  Who even milk the cows!!)  and Detroit.  Detroit was... sad... actually.  It's a ghost town.  I've never been in a major city with no signs of life in the  middle of the day.  But we had wonderful Greek food and took a driving tour of the rest of the city.  It was once beautiful.  I'm sure it will be again.

I need to dive back into my papers, I had really hoped that I'd update more often, but it just hasn't worked out that way.  Someday, someday I will be a good blogger.  Probably.

Oh!  And I had to create a Twitter account for my evangelism class.  I wanted to keep it separate from my main one, so you can also find me at:  JanessaAtDrew.  Check it out if you'd like!