MIA

so sorry i have been MIA the last few weeks. I realized while texting Amber last night that because of my lack of blogging i have left many people out of the details of my life.

there are only three weeks of classes left!! and anyone who is in school knows that a wave of papers/ projects are due at this time so that they don't get too close to finals. so the wave hit this week. A 4-5 pg paper for Local chruch in Mission, a 8-10 pg paper for Christian Ethics (both due last wednesday), a 18-20 pg paper for Methodism due this coming thursday! in the midst of that i have gotten a stress (what stress?) induced cold/allergies have hit so i had to stay home tuesday becasue i felt like i had ben hit by a mack truck- but that allowed me to get both papers done by 10 at night rather than 1 or 2 am like usual so that kind of worked in my favor!

in the midst of all of that i preached for my class the monday after spring break (all went well- see previous post) and i had to have a 45 minute meeting with my actual prof. about it. Registration is next week so i had an advising meeting, and Field Ed. placements are made today!! so by five i should now where i will be this summer! also i have applied for Clinical Pastoral Education at Duke Med (2 reference letters, and 13 pages of single spaced answers to questions for the application) in the last two weeks and have my interview today at 3!

CPE is required for many people seeking ordination, but not for me. It's a program that is designed to help prepastors like myself get to know themselves in pastoral situations, through counseling and classroom time, reflective papers and verbatims that are analyzed by classmates and supervisors. it also helps me to learn how to react in pastoral situations. if i get in i will be serving as an intern chaplain for Duke Med. so i will be at the patients, dr. and nurses beck and call for any pastoral situation that they need- usually it is praying prior to surgeries, helping to give death notices to family members after a loved one has passed, or to lead group/individual counseling things- like a family struggling with wether to pull thier loved ones off life support. Overall it is an extremely involving process.

-maybe if Ted Kennedy comes back to Duke Med i can hang out with him!! i get a lab coat and id badge and everything!! i also get a few times where i am the ONLY chaplain present for 24 hours on the weekend- i get to sleep in the on call room and be there all night!!! aahhhh, how cool!!

i have applied to do it this fall and will get two course credits for doing it. so i will take two classes at the div. school like normal and then do CPE stuff for about 15-20 hours a week.

so wish me luck on my interview!! and ya'll have a good day!!!

TTFN- i'll post when i hear anything from them!
Julia