Change Adventure--End Week 1

This is how far I have come in one week to filling up my container that will be donated to the ONE Campaign.

The change did not pile up as quickly as I thought it would. This is going to take longer than I thought.

Good news, everyone!

I have been awarded the Presbyterian Study Grant. This grant is for Presbyterian seminaries and for Presbyterian seminarians in Masters of Divinity programs. There are four different types of grants, and the Presbyterian Study Grant ranges from $1,000 to $4,000. Many times in undergraduate I heard my fellow classmates say that small scholarships were not worth getting, but let me tell you that every scholarship/grant helps.

To be awarded a grant from the Presbyterian Church [USA] is an honor. The church offers scholarships and grants for all levels of higher education. Last year I was awarded the Presbyterian Opportunity Scholarship which is focused on Presbyterian students in humanities. No matter what level you're at, the PCUSA has financial help for you.

For more information, surf here.

A special thank you to those who wrote me recommendations.

Odds and Ends

This week in Greek is dedicated to the odds and ends of grammar that are important but don't really fit in any other category. Yesterday we learned about the subjunctive case, and today we learned about the imperative case. For our homework we are no longer using made up sentences, we are translating chunks of the Bible! It's awesome because that's the whole reason we're in Greek. Before this class ends we will have translated 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Philemon all of which are wonderfully short.

In my spare time [a.k.a I really should have been studying during this time] I have been doing some reading. I read Diana Butler Bass' Christianity for the Rest of Us. I was really moved by many of the personal stories about people discovering or rediscovering the joy of Christ within a church community. The book lays out central ideas around which mainline churches are growing deeper into spirituality. There is a lot of diversity in the styles of spirituality, and it was fun to see what has been successful in other churches. I recommend the book highly.

I have also been reading Seeds of Hope: A Henri Nouwen Reader edited by Robert Durback. My mom gave this book to me, and it has small excerpts from other Henri Nouwen's books which makes it easy to read in short doses. It is not set up like a daily study, but it is easy to use it as such. Below is one of my favorite parts:

"Oh how important is discipline, community, prayer, silence, caring presence, simple listening, adoration, and deep, lasting faithful friendship. We all want it so much, and still the powers suggesting that all of that is fantasy is enormous. But we have to replace the battle for power with the battle to create space for the Spirit" from The Road to Daybreak

The PTS bookstore is having an 85% book sale. This is very dangerous. There are many books I want, and I know all I should be buying in the book store are textbooks. I have picked up some of my text books already, and I'm very excited for the upcoming semester.

ONE

I started the Change Adventure the day I found out my friend Josh had passed away. His family has asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Josh Green Memorial Fund at the ONE Campaign. The ONE Campaign is dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable diseases. I will send my first container funds to the ONE Campaign in memory of Josh. The ONE Campaign is dedicated to changing the lives of individuals and countries, something that Josh was passionate about. If you wish to make a donation to a charity and are undecided as to which one, please consider the ONE Campaign.


More information can be found at: www.one.org/us/

In Memory

My friend Josh died this week very unexpectedly. My thoughts and prayer go out to his family.

Josh was an incredible person who could light up a room just by walking in the door. He was one of the people in my high school who you could tell was going to make a difference in the world, and now looking back I can see how big a difference he made. He was never phony, never tried to be someone he wasn't, never tried to be someone because someone else expected him to be. Josh was always warm, caring, and passing on the light of Christ without having to say anything.

He will be missed greatly.

The Change Adventure

Today I begin the Change Adventure. It's a quest to find out how quickly I can fill up this huge plastic container with change. When the container is filled with my spare change, I will exchange the change for bills and donate the money to a charity that is TBA. Then after that I will fill up the container again and send the money to a different charity, etc.

The container is 1500g/52.9 oz that was filled with jelly packets from Korea. It is about nine inches tall and about five and a half inches wide.


This is about changing something with change. If any of my readers have a favorite charity they would like me to consider, please comment or e-mail me.

End Week 6

This week has been very long, and we're all happy to have a weekend. I am happy to report that I have been hired for an on-campus job. Thank God! I worked on my undergraduate campus in several different departments, and I loved the involvement. I have been hired in the mailroom for about nine hours a week which means I'll get my paycheck first. There are only four student positions in the mailroom, and I feel blessed to have found any job. I know many of friends are struggling to find any job.

Several weeks ago some girls in the dorm started a Bible study, and we've met weekly on Wednesday nights. This Wednesday we finished our study of 1 Peter. We're not sure what we're going to study next, and it's exciting to think of all the possibilities. There was one verse that really stuck out to our entire group.
"Cast all your anxiety on him [God], because he cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7
It's been a stress filled week for most of us. This week my Greek class got participles, infinitives, and relative pronouns which led to much confusion and worry about the test that was this morning. Professor Wagner took our test questions from Bible verses. It's amazing how far we've all come. We were able to sit in a classroom and translate Bible verses without the any help. No dictionaries or grammar aids, the translation was organic. Wow. What an incredible thing to be able to do! The girls in my Bible study were so wonderful about reminding each other that this is for the furthering of God's kin-dom. We need to cast our anxieties on God because God loves us and very little can get accomplished when you're so worked up you can't think. That has been the lesson for me this week.

"Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!" Psalm 32:11

Seminary humor

Thank you

Today I received a card from a member of my home church sending me best wishes and informing me I'm in her prayers. I have received several cards from my home church, and they are a wonderful reminder why I'm here. It's very easy to get caught up in studying and grades, but I'm at Princeton Seminary because of my home church and the people there. It was and is the people of Faith Presbyterian who instilled the idea of service in me. It was at Faith that I first had inklings that I wanted to be a pastor, and it is a very special church to me and those in our community.

Thank you to all who support me.

Thank you for all your service to our Lord.

I am overwhelmed by the amount of support I have here at Princeton and back home.

Jonah

This morning I attended First Presbyterian Church of Cranbury. I have been visiting many churches in the area, but the Presbyterian Church in Cranbury is actually a very special place. One of my spiritual mentors was an intern there while she was at Princeton Seminary. So to worship in that congregation was incredible. I don't think either of the current pastors were there when my mentor was, but from what I've heard about this church the spirit [and the Spirit] is the same.

The Associate Pastor Rev. Rosanna Anderson preached today about Jonah 3:1-4:5 and Matthew 12:38-42. Her ending was especially meaningful to me. I'm going to paraphrase in my own words:
We are spiritual seekers who are caught between the reality of community and our longing for the ideal. It is our responsibility to build people up in love because we are all on a journey. We need to receive the gift of where we. God provides the belly of the whale and in God's time the dry land.

For me, being able to realize the gift of where I am is sometimes very difficult. I want to look forward to what kind of church I want to be an intern in, what part of the country I want to live in after seminary; or I want to look back and think about how much I miss my college friends and my family. To have goals is a good thing. To know where you came from is a good thing. To have people you love and miss is a blessing. But to recieve the gift of the present... there is nothing like it.

The great theologian Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Every moment is an opportunity to manifest the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". The gift of the present is an opportunity. This I try to remember and to live.

You can hear Rev. Anderson's sermon later this week at http://www.cranburypres.org/audioarchive.html

Saturday Adventures

I have had a couple of great Saturdays, and I apologize for not putting up pictures or writing about them sooner.

Last Saturday was my first trip to New York City. I was so incredibly excited to go. You see movies and TV shows set in NYC all the time but then you never get to go. It was my mom's idea, actually. So I asked around at dinner, and several people wanted to just hang out around "The City" all day. So we hopped on a Saturday morning train and were in NYC in about an hour. Pretty awesome. We walked through Times Square. Andrew and I got to see Parsons New School of Design! [where Project Runway is filmed] We grabbed sandwiches at a tiny hole-in-the-wall deli and ate lunch on a Central Park bench. Then Noah and I went to the American Museum of Natural History. I do love that Teddy Roosevelt, and Margaret Mead is one of my heroes. Of course the contents of the museum were awesome, and we got to see this cool movie in the planetarium called "Journey into the Stars" narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. Apparently Joni Mitchell was both profound and scientifically correct when she wrote the lyrics "We are stardust". [Also, it's the 40th anniversary of Woodstock today!! YAY WOODSTOCK!]


Then we met up with Axel and his friend Chris who is a PhD student at Columbia. Christ took us to Magnolia Bakery which is apparently famous for cupcakes. We ate many cupcakes, and they were great. Very dense with frosting that was lighter than air. We caught a subway back downtown to get tickets for an improv show which was unfortunately sold out. Since we weren't going to a show, we went to a burger joint for dinner. Then since we had a while before our train, we went to a corner bar. Luckily, there was a Yankees game on [against the Red Socks]. Very quintacential NYC moment.
I also discovered that I like trains.

Today was a very relaxing day. I got to sleep in which is so nice. I treated myself to a movie, Julie and Julia. I really liked it not just because one of the main characters is writing a blog. :) Meryl Streep is an incredible actress. I went to Barnes and Noble and spent a while choosing a couple of fun books. Then I sat in a coffee shop reading. Isn't it wonderful when you have time to read a book you've been meaning to read for years. For me that book is Journey to the Center of the Earth. I'm about halfway through it.

John and Martin

It's the Year of Calvin, and the Presbyterian Church has been posting quotes from Calvin every day. Here's today's:

Daily Meditations with Calvin August 12, 2009
"Conversely, we are God's: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's: let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are God's: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal." (3.7.1.)




For some reason when I read that quote, I thought of this one:

"I have no other ambitions in life but to achieve excellence in the Christian ministry. I don't plan to run for any political office. I don't plan to do anything but remain a preacher" Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool"

I guess the two quotes aren't entirely related, but when I read Calvin's thought "let us therefore live for him and die for him", I thought of Martin Luther King, Jr. who was loyal until death. Now I don't think there is any way John Calvin [1509-1564 CE] could have foreseen the establishment of any independent American nations much less the Christian pastors' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. However, one of the wonderful things about having two thousand years of Christian leaders' wisdom is that through individual voices a might chorus of the Spirit builds. While we live in a linear world [we live from August 10, 2009 to August 11, 2009 to August 12, 2009], our faith doesn't exist linearly. Faith exists in communities and in the relationships between people both alive and dead. We speak of Christ being present to us through the Spirit, and through that same Spirit we are blessed with voices of wisdom like Calvin. No two people are going to agree whether they're arguing today or arguing across time... But I wonder how well John and Martin would get along if in some twist of the time stream they were to meet. Two brothers in Christ separated by hundreds of years who both believed in giving your life entirely over to God. We could spend all day naming other historical and contemporary figures who believe the same idea, but since it's Calvin's year and for my summer reading I had a book of MLK's sermons, I'm choosing these two.

I think they would have had more in common than in difference.

Mr. Morton

Some of the students in my Biblical Greek class were having trouble with some of the English grammar, so the Professor pulled out this classic:

Weekend Adventures

In my undergraduate career I learned to love Ramune and mochi. Both are wonderful things from Japan. Ramune [pictured] is a soft drink that comes in these weird glass bottles that uses both craft and sheer strength to break into. Mochi is a rice cake with sweet bean curd tucked away inside. Neither have I ever found at a 'normal' grocery store, so when a couple of new friends asked me if I wanted to go with them to an Asian market on Saturday, I jumped at the chance. We loaded into a car and took off. Forty-five minutes into a five minute drive we arrived at the Asian Market in Plainsboro which was not where we were supposed to end up. Sarang is from Korea and she spent a lot of time in Thailand, so the Asian market was a slice of home. For me the Asian market reminded me of all my wonderful friends back in Missouri who taught me to appreciate Asian food and who took me to my first Asian market back when I was a freshman. I was sad not to find any green tea ice cream, and I'm wondering if green tea ice cream is an American invention. Doesn't make it any less delicious, honestly.

Food is important in our lives, and the church I attended on Sunday reminded me of this. For the first time, I heard a PTS seminiarian preach [Lisa]; and I was recognized for the first time as a seminarian. Lisa preached on John 6:24-35 and about the importance of Christ as the bread that feeds our souls. It was a great balance of physical hunger as expressed in bread and spiritual hunger as expressed in communion. It was a beautiful and moving sermon and service in this tiny congregation.

Now I've gone and made myself hungry. Where's my mochi?

Weird

After all my travels... after all I have done in the United States and abroad... after marching band trips, independent movie festivals, food both known and unknown throughout Europe, you would think I would be prepared for anything. But I wasn't.

Today I found out that you cannot pump your own gas in New Jersey.