Dear Friends and Family,
Hello Again! In case you were holding your breath, I did in fact, make it home to the USA (despite various ill-advised adventures, one of which is pictured at right). Thank you all for your prayers for my safety, and sorry to keep you in suspense! This here update will fill you in on what I've been doing for the last few months and also where I plan to go from here.
But first, I'd like to express my grattitude to you all one more time. I said before that I was astonished by your generosity, and I still am! Without your gifts, your prayers and your encouragement, I could not have gone to Ethiopia this summer and participated in the ministries God had prepared for me. Your support helped confirm for me that I was following his lead, and it also reminded me of the profound fellowship we have in Christ.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Now for the last two months… The Sunday after I arrived back in the USA, I was invited to speak at my home church— Calvary Baptist of Kenai, AK. I presented a slideshow of my Ethiopia experience, and also talked about what you can do to support God's missions program. It might not be what you think!
If you want to listen to that message, go to http://kenaicalvary.org/Audio/Audio.html and scroll down to my two messages on August 10. In the evening service, I told a few hair raising stories just to scare mom a little! The next few weeks I spent with friends and family in Alaska, just relaxing and trying to process all of my summer experiences.
In September, I came back down to Dallas in order to wrap up my seminary career. Technically, I had already graduated, but my thesis on Job still required a few touch-ups. Email me if you would like to read it… You'd be one of a very few!
I also agreed to grade for several Dallas Seminary classes this fall— Preaching 1 and The Spiritual Life. This has been an interesting, and humbling, task for me, and quite a privilege. In addition, I put in quite a few hours at Group Dynamix, the teambuilding facility where I've been working the last four years. (Our promo video, starring yours truly, is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49hZ2oY8Kq4).
Lately, I've cut back on my workload (thanks to a stimulus check from governor Palin!) so that I can focus on the future, which seems, from my current vantage point, to include a PhD. During my last year of seminary, I became increasingly convinced that God is leading me that direction, though for what purpose I remain unaware.
But I was exhausted after my four-year Th.M program, and I had little time to look into PhD programs during my final months. So, I am trying to remedy both situations at present: getting plenty of rest and researching doctoral programs around the country and abroad. I'm also attempting to publish several articles related to my thesis, both for posterity and to help make me a more attractive PhD candidate. I am hoping to improve my chances at substantial scholarships, grants or stipends as a published author. Naturally, this will be a lengthy and possibly frustrating process, and I may not begin a new degree program for a year or two.
So, in the meantime, I'm pleased= to announce that I've accepted a position as Interim Associate Pastor at my home church in Kenai for the next year or so, beginning in January of 2009. Calvary Baptist has been growing pretty rapidly in the past few years, and it has been getting difficult for my Dad to keep up with all of the needs in the church, despite the fine support of the deacons and the members. So, Calvary has asked me to come on as a full-time associate to help relieve some of the pressure on my Dad and to help facilitate godly expansion. We want to respond to our growth with carefully reasoned, prayerful decisions concerning the possibilty of new programs, new buildings, new positions and etc. In fact, one of my tasks will be to help establish the need for an Associate Pastor at Calvary and define his future role and responsibilities.
I am thrilled to return to my home church and serve many of the people who have supported me in a variety of ways over the years. And, of course, working with Dad will be a lot of fun!
Please pray for me as I step into this new role, that I serve the Lord and the folks at Calvary with wisdom and humility. Please pray also that the Lord directs my steps in my search for a doctoral program. If you didn't get a chance to see my pictures or read my email posts this summer, check out my blog at http://www.southernsalmon.blogspot.com. As always, I'd love to hear from you, and I'll be keeping you posted.
In Christ,
Joel Reemtsma
Hello Again! In case you were holding your breath, I did in fact, make it home to the USA (despite various ill-advised adventures, one of which is pictured at right). Thank you all for your prayers for my safety, and sorry to keep you in suspense! This here update will fill you in on what I've been doing for the last few months and also where I plan to go from here.
But first, I'd like to express my grattitude to you all one more time. I said before that I was astonished by your generosity, and I still am! Without your gifts, your prayers and your encouragement, I could not have gone to Ethiopia this summer and participated in the ministries God had prepared for me. Your support helped confirm for me that I was following his lead, and it also reminded me of the profound fellowship we have in Christ.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Now for the last two months… The Sunday after I arrived back in the USA, I was invited to speak at my home church— Calvary Baptist of Kenai, AK. I presented a slideshow of my Ethiopia experience, and also talked about what you can do to support God's missions program. It might not be what you think!
If you want to listen to that message, go to http://kenaicalvary.org/Audio/Audio.html and scroll down to my two messages on August 10. In the evening service, I told a few hair raising stories just to scare mom a little! The next few weeks I spent with friends and family in Alaska, just relaxing and trying to process all of my summer experiences.
In September, I came back down to Dallas in order to wrap up my seminary career. Technically, I had already graduated, but my thesis on Job still required a few touch-ups. Email me if you would like to read it… You'd be one of a very few!
I also agreed to grade for several Dallas Seminary classes this fall— Preaching 1 and The Spiritual Life. This has been an interesting, and humbling, task for me, and quite a privilege. In addition, I put in quite a few hours at Group Dynamix, the teambuilding facility where I've been working the last four years. (Our promo video, starring yours truly, is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49hZ2oY8Kq4).
Lately, I've cut back on my workload (thanks to a stimulus check from governor Palin!) so that I can focus on the future, which seems, from my current vantage point, to include a PhD. During my last year of seminary, I became increasingly convinced that God is leading me that direction, though for what purpose I remain unaware.
But I was exhausted after my four-year Th.M program, and I had little time to look into PhD programs during my final months. So, I am trying to remedy both situations at present: getting plenty of rest and researching doctoral programs around the country and abroad. I'm also attempting to publish several articles related to my thesis, both for posterity and to help make me a more attractive PhD candidate. I am hoping to improve my chances at substantial scholarships, grants or stipends as a published author. Naturally, this will be a lengthy and possibly frustrating process, and I may not begin a new degree program for a year or two.
So, in the meantime, I'm pleased= to announce that I've accepted a position as Interim Associate Pastor at my home church in Kenai for the next year or so, beginning in January of 2009. Calvary Baptist has been growing pretty rapidly in the past few years, and it has been getting difficult for my Dad to keep up with all of the needs in the church, despite the fine support of the deacons and the members. So, Calvary has asked me to come on as a full-time associate to help relieve some of the pressure on my Dad and to help facilitate godly expansion. We want to respond to our growth with carefully reasoned, prayerful decisions concerning the possibilty of new programs, new buildings, new positions and etc. In fact, one of my tasks will be to help establish the need for an Associate Pastor at Calvary and define his future role and responsibilities.
I am thrilled to return to my home church and serve many of the people who have supported me in a variety of ways over the years. And, of course, working with Dad will be a lot of fun!
Please pray for me as I step into this new role, that I serve the Lord and the folks at Calvary with wisdom and humility. Please pray also that the Lord directs my steps in my search for a doctoral program. If you didn't get a chance to see my pictures or read my email posts this summer, check out my blog at http://www.southernsalmon.blogspot.com. As always, I'd love to hear from you, and I'll be keeping you posted.
In Christ,
Joel Reemtsma
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