Peace on Earth

Jess: I promise we'll write something about the whole having-a-baby process at some point, but right now I think talking about Newtown is more important. Plus, we'll end up talking about James anyway. 

These shootings have started to affect me more and more each time. I distinctly remember Columbine, when it seemed like the world was crashing down around us. School was no longer a safe place. It wasn't like school (I was in junior high at that point) was ever "fun" or "awesome" back then, but at least it was a place where we knew we would be okay. All of a sudden, that wasn't the case anymore. I don't remember being scared exactly, but I do remember being more aware of my surroundings, aware that life doesn't always go like you think. I remember crying for the students who died, listening to that Michael W. Smith song about Cassie, and the beginning of a new kind of drill--a lockdown. I would assess how safe a particular classroom would be in the event of a shooting. The choir classroom would be a disaster. There were huge windows through which you could see every teeny corner of the room. I just remember things changing drastically...and then they settled down again and I kind of forgot what it was like to be so nervous. 

Earlier this year, when the shooting happened in Chardon, Ohio (if you don't remember this, Wikipedia has a page here), I kind of fell apart. I cried about it while talking to my mom on the phone. I got super angry and tried to figure out what I could/should do. I talked to Pastor Linda at my field education congregation and wondered aloud why I was so mad. I finally realized that part of it had to be how close to home this came. Chardon wasn't some place that I had never heard of until this terrible event. Chardon was right around the corner from where I grew up. Chardon was a place very much like my hometown. Chardon could have been Hudson. That was a terrifying thought. 

This summer, when the shooting happened in Aurora, I had gotten called into the hospital to attend a family on the death of their loved one. We went to see the Dark Knight Rises later that day, and I had a really hard time enjoying it. All I could think about was the family I had been with, and how sad they were to see their elderly, very sick relative pass away. If it's that hard in that situation, how terrible was it for the families whose loved ones died brutal, senseless deaths while watching a movie? A movie about overcoming a brutal, senseless killer, nonetheless...

And then comes Newtown. Wes and I are terrible about watching the news and keeping up on current events. But, thanks to Facebook, we don't really need to be good about it. Pretty quickly after the shooting, my friend Mark posted an article about it. And again, my world came crashing down. All I wanted to do was hold James and Wes and never leave our house again. All I could think was, "I just brought a child into this world, and this is what happens to children in this world?" I panicked about ever having to drop James off at school. Even now, I'm so angry, so scared, so aware of the evil in this world. 

One of our friends posted a line from "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" as his status on Friday. The line is "And in despair I bowed my head. 'There is no peace on earth I said.'" I think a lot of us feel this way right now. There doesn't seem to be any peace on earth--how can there be when innocent children are dying? I was listening to this song on my way into school today with tears in my eyes. Sometimes, I think there are no words for how we feel. There doesn't seem to be a way for us to even find the words to pray. In these moments, I frequently find that songs provide the words I couldn't find myself. This song was my prayer this morning. I do have "there is no peace on earth" echoing in my head. I am continually asking God why. But I am also thinking about the end of the song, where it says, "God is not dead nor does God sleep. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, good will to all." Even when I'm yelling, even when I'm asking why, God is not dead. God is right here with me, weeping like me. And peace will come to earth...not right away, and not easily. But peace is coming. And that makes me sing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" with much more force this year. Come, Lord Jesus. Come and rescue us from ourselves...

Wes: So, Jess pretty much hit the nail square on the head. There's nothing more that I could really add to contribute, but I'm gonna try to share some of my experiences and thoughts on this. 

I'll first start off with a bit of a rant. I promise to try not to get too high up on my soap box. I absolutely cannot stand the way some people use social media during times of tragedy. It makes me sad, it makes me mad, and it makes me feel a little queazy. How can we be so mean to each other when such horrible things are happening? I finally had to actively stop myself from checking my Facebook because I couldn't believe just how mean everyone was being to everyone else during this time. The same thing happened after the Aurora shootings, the same thing happened after bin Ladin was killed, and the same thing happens quite often with no national provocation. Things that no one would ever say to another person face to face are posted online without hesitation, because we seem to forget that someone else--a real person--is on another internet device reading your hateful, one-sided attacks. When we do this, we are no better than the people holding picket signs who refuse to even try to understand where the other person is coming from. Please, just stop and think before you post something that attacks or demeans someone else. 

Second, I am a little surprised at the way people on both sides are handling this gun ownership issue. Yes, horrible acts such as what happened in Newtown would not probably not have happened if we had a better handle on how to deal with mental health issues in our country. The people who desperately need help are not receiving it, and some of them are acting out because of it to the harm of themselves and others. This absolutely should be a much-needed wake-up call about how our nation responds to the needs of those who are too often marginalized by society. But it is just as true and relevant to say that if we had stricter gun control laws, it would not be as easy for something like this to happen. Now, I am a good Texas boy, and I am all for people's rights to own the means to both provide their own food through hunting and secure their home for safety. But we absolutely need to figure out a way to keep firearms out of the hands of those who might cause harm to others. 

I would rather all guns be removed from homes than I would another single child die from a gun shot. I am not saying that this is the answer, I'm just saying let's put this in perspective. 

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I want to tell y'all about my personal experience with all of this. Last week was the third week of Advent. This week's theme is traditionally "Joy." I struggled for a long time on how I was going to handle my Sunday services in the wake of this horrible event. How do you talk about joy when something so dark has happened? To add to matters, both of my congregations experienced the loss of a member this past week. Death seemed to be all around us. Well, I finally decided that I needed to preach on this. I needed to preach on joy because the truth is, joy is something that we should see in droves right now. As God's people here on earth, it is in dark, chaotic times of suffering such as this that our joy should be most prevalent, because it is in such times of suffering that we are able tell the difference between joy and happiness. 

You see, happiness is a fleeting thing. It comes and goes as all emotions do. Joy, though, is not an emotion. It is a state of being. Our joy is what causes us to celebrate during times of feasting and also to stand strong during times of suffering. Joy is why we can push through this horrible time and come out stronger than ever, for it is in such dark moments that we cling all the more tightly to our God. 

So during the church service, we made balloon animals. 

I wanted to take everyone's mind, even for a second, off of the horror, and remind them of a way that joy is shared to those in the grips of death all their lives--those terminal patients in the childrens cancer ward. We smiled, we laughed, and we left there with the work of sharing that joy with a hurting people. 

It is my hope that in times like this, we would all try to share that joy in a very special way. 

Well, that's all for now. Love you all! TTFN! You stay classy, World Wide Web!

-wes and jess

Second Generation Metheran

Jess:

Wes:

James Wesley:

Stay classy, World Wide Web

I'm Voting for _________!

Jess: Wes and I are not particularly politically-minded people. We know that there is an election happening, and we know who we’re going to vote for. But beyond that, we just don’t get that involved. There are some pretty good reasons for this attitude.

First of all, I get super sick of the attitudes that the candidates have toward each other. These men (and hopefully someday women) have worked in politics for a good part of their lives. They are not idiots, they are not incompetent, and they have already made an impact on the history of the US and possibly the world. In fact, even the loser in the race will have made a significant impact. Yet here we are watching them throw insults at one another, acting like little children. They lie, they cheat, and generally look stupid because of their actions toward one another. Why would I want to vote for either one of you? What are we showing the rest of the world if the only way to get to “the top” is to lower ourselves to slinging mud at others?

My next issue with the election is somewhat new: the Facebook bashing back and forth. People on both sides are saying things like “You’re an idiot if you vote for ____,” or “If you’re a ______ there’s no way that you could vote for ______.” I’ve seen fights about abortion, gay marriage, women’s rights, why Democrats suck, why Republicans suck, the poor, and so much more. No one is convincing anyone else with this discussion. Rather, they are just making me want to unfriend them and move on with my life.

What especially disturbs me is my Christian friends who are acting like this. Obviously, we have certain values that matter. I could spend an entire blog post talking about why I’m voting for the candidate I’m voting for based on my faith. And someone else could do an equally good job from the opposite standpoint. But what do we lose when we are just arguing about these men? Who is winning and losing here? Christians have a bad enough reputation in the world today—why would we want to perpetuate this with silly fights.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the issues involved are silly. These are important, life-changing issues. Yet is Facebook—that anonymous place where people aren’t much more than a photo—the place to talk about these issues? We’ve lost sight of the fact that real people have real opinions about these things. And that just makes the candidates’ constant mudslinging all the worse. We forget that being president, that voting, that having this opportunity are all rare in the world. We forget that we are free in so many ways, and through this freedom we are not supposed to bind others, but to help them be more free, as well.  

Wes: It’s that time again! Voting season. It’s not near as exciting for me as football season, or baseball season. It’s not near as delicious for me as dove season or deer season. It’s also not near as magical for me as Christmas season.

I have to admit something to y’all: I’ve never voted before. I know that this is a big surprise, and honestly it’s not something that I’m very proud of. I’ve missed six years of voting, and one opportunity to let my voice be heard in the election of the president of our nation. My thoughts were always that it was a lot of work for a little impact, and, honestly, I couldn’t stand the way that all of these candidates were selling themselves to the masses. The political commercials on TV, the online ads and mass emails, the giant billboards and tiny-sized signs plastered all over highways, buildings, and peoples’ front yards all drove me crazy. Nothing ever seemed to speak to issues; they always seemed to either just shout the candidate’s name or tell me why the opposing candidate was the devil. I couldn’t take it, so I refused to give in to it.

Then one of my friends told me that the only way to do something about that was to change the system by voting. Otherwise I’m just complaining, and that’s annoying. I decided that he was right, so I decided this year to try to wade through all of the bull honky, find out who the actual candidates were, and make an informed vote based on issues.

Wow. That’s a lot harder than it seems.

And it doesn’t help that—as Jess points out above—our society is extremely opinionated and certain outlets such as Facebook allow anyone to say (and share) anything they want without first making sure that what they are saying is based on truth and without thinking about how their words will come across to others. The first part is just funny. Obama is a terrorist from Mars sent here to steal our children and turn them gay. Romney is really a dog-demonizing, promiscuous reincarnation of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Hitler. Really people? get your facts straight.

This second part, though, really bugs me. I think that the faceless and disassociated aspect of social media has worked to remove peoples’ filters when it comes to thinking about the impact that they have on others. Whether I am a Republican or a Democrat has no impact on my eternal salvation, so when someone’s post tells me that if I’m going to vote for a certain person, I might as well go to hell, it can be a very hurtful thing. When my intelligence is questioned based on my presidential vote, it can be a hurtful thing. I think that we forget that when we say these things, real people with real feelings and just as valid opinions will be reading them.

When you post something on Facebook or Twitter or any of these other social media outlets—especially if you claim to be a Christian and are supposed to care about these things—think about whether or not you would say this to someone’s face, and whether or not you are willing to deal with the real emotions and reactions of this. Think about who you are representing through your actions and through your words, because we’re supposed to be representing Christ.

Please?

But even after all of these posts, shared photos, bashings, ads, etc… I’m still going to vote this year. I’ve come to believe that it is extremely important to stretch our democratic muscles and to allow our voices to be heard through our votes. I would urge everyone to learn about the issues, learn about the candidates, and go vote.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading! You stay classy, World Wide Web!

-jess and wes

Catching Up

Jess: I apologize that Wes and I have been so remiss in writing our blogs recently. Things have been pretty crazy around here recently, and I'm sure they're just going to keep getting worse at the rate we're going!

We were going to write a blog about politics, but I'm thinking that some people might want to know what we've been up to for the last six weeks. Perhaps we'll get on track again and chat about politics next week. 

CPE finally ended for me on August 17. We had a lovely lunch at a local restaurant to celebrate our "graduation," and then Wes, our friend Jon, and I headed to Ohio. That's right. We made the 8-hour drive to Mansfield, Ohio on Friday afternoon/evening/night. The men were wonderful and insisted that I stretch out across the back and rest, rather than doing any of the driving. So I was able to be somewhat comfortable for the trip over. On Saturday morning and afternoon, we attended my candidacy retreat, which was interesting. We had some good discussions with other candidates and some members of the candidacy committee, had some synod time together, participated in a worship service, learned a little about family life and ministry, and talked about the candidacy process. Then it was back in the car for the drive home so Wes would be ready to preach on Sunday morning. After that exhausting trip, we basically just sat around on Monday and Tuesday, but we had a wonderful visit with Jon and were so grateful that he was able to come out to see us. 

The week between CPE and school starting for me is basically a blur. I know I worked on some homework and apparently attempted to rest, but then Wes and I both got a stomach bug and spent Friday and Saturday watching TV and trying to eat something. I was pretty worried about the baby, but he seems to have done pretty well. In fact, when we went in this week, the midwife told me that he's measuring two weeks big! I guess he's a pretty resilient guy. 

I started my field ed on Sunday August 26, and started school the next day. If you want to know about field ed, you'll have to read my blog, which you can do here. School has been going swimmingly so far. The only drawback to the whole process is Hebrew. Now, I'm a language person. I love learning new languages, and I pick them up really easily. I honestly can't remember getting anything less than a 90% on Spanish homework--or Greek, for that matter. Yet Hebrew is evading me. I really think I just don't have enough time to devote to learning it, but there's not much I can do about that. I'm taking it pass/fail, so I don't really NEED to work that hard, but if you know me, you know I can't just slack off. 

The rest of my classes have been fun. I'm taking Old Testament online, which has brought nothing surprising yet, but once we get through the first five books, I know I'll learn a lot more. I'm also taking History of Christianity online, which has been way more interesting than I expected. I can't tell you how much I love being able to "go to class" while sitting on my couch in my pajamas. These classes are a pregnant woman's dream. At school, I'm also taking Christian Education, which has been fun so far. I love the books we're reading for the class, and we have an online forum that we post on each week, which has also led to some great discussions. Finally, I'm taking Homiletics, which is by far my favorite course. I have been waiting impatiently to take another class with this professor since last fall. She's awesome, fun, and...Methodist, which Wes loves. Plus, this is one of those times where I can immediately see the application of my course work. We're writing sermons and then preaching them at our field ed sites. 

Babysitting Dan is the usual. He's gotten pretty good about letting me rest or do homework or whatever, and he's really grown up a lot even in the last few months. He's almost as busy as I am with travel soccer this fall, but he loves it, so that's great. And he's super excited about the baby, but who's not? We're at the point where we're going to be going to the doctor every two weeks, and sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, our little bundle of joy is going to make his way screaming into the world! We're pretty set for the moment and very excited to see where life takes us next. 

Wes: So my life hasn't been near as jam-packed as my lovely wife's has been, but I do have a couple things worth reporting to our adoring fans. 

First, I had my final degree audit yesterday at Princeton. I am officially good to go to finish my stuff up this December and to graduate this coming May. I went into the registrar's office this last Friday to check in with him and to make sure that I was on top of everything, and he pulled up my stuff and told me that I am actually better off at this point than many of the seniors who put off checking in with him until the last minute. Only one of my classes this semester is a required course, and I actually only needed six hours to complete my MDiv. 

I'm pretty paranoid about stuff like degree plans. I feel like I am not very good at staying on top of all of my responsibilities, and when it comes to things like paperwork and planning out courses in advance, it's really easy for me to let things fall to the wayside. It's nice to know that this did not, and that I'll be finally done with school (for a while at least). 

I am excited about having the Spring semester off from school and still only be working half-time. It'll be a nice break from running pell-mell in ten different directions at once, and it'll give me plenty of time to spend with the baby once it's born. 

It's still really throwing me that I'm about to be a daddy. Freaking ridiculous. 

Which brings me to the next bit of news worth sharing. My district superintendent asked me this past week to share with my churches that as of May, Jess and I will be moving back to Texas for good. It was a bittersweet announcement to make, for even though both of us are very excited to be back around family and friends and to have the chance to raise Baby Cain up in that community, it was hard telling the churches of our plans. I feel like I am saying goodbye to them way too early, and that the process will be stretched out much longer than I would have liked. I don't want every Sunday to be a reminder to myself and to everyone in the congregation that we are one Sunday closer to leaving, and I definitely don't want anyone to feel like we are abandoning them by making this decision to continue on in both our vocations and our family plans. 

It will be great to be back home in a few months, but it will be hard to say goodbye. 

Well, that's a quick update on us. We'll get back into a rhythm with this blog soon, so stay with us. 

You stay classy, World Wide Web!

jess and wes

Summer Days, Driftin' Away

Jess: Well, I didn't talk to Wes about writing another blog, but I know our adoring fans are waiting impatiently, so here goes.

This summer has been quite a trip--for some of us. The rest of us have been working quite a lot. CPE has been going a lot better than I expected, because I honestly thought I would just be "getting through" the summer. Instead, I've made friends with some pretty cool people, I've met a lot of wonderful patients who have truly enjoyed our time together, and I have learned a lot about pastoral care in a specific as well as general sense. Sure, there have been days when my alarm goes off and I groan about having to do another day, but, all-in-all, this has been a good learning time.

I think I owe most of my semi-excitement about CPE to my supervisor, Ted. He has really made this a program where we learn based on what we want to learn. My goals have been to learn how to be empathetic without being overly emotional, to focus less on agendas/to-do lists and more on the here and now, and finally to develop my prayer life a little better. I think I have progressed well on every one of these goals, and I have actually developed some of my learning goals for field ed this year based on what I have been doing this summer. I think this might even be the point of CPE, so boo-yah.

Most of what I've learned this summer has been about myself, which I hear is one of the big goals of CPE. Sure, the patients are important, but I think the general assumption is that, if your respective seminary/denominational groups have put you through the process thus far, then you won't be too damaging in your interactions with them. Rather, the point of CPE is to learn about yourself--what are your strengths and weaknesses for pastoral care? Where could you do better, and in what ways are you pretty ready for ministry?

Ted's biggest comment in my most recent meeting was how I like to find the "right" thing to do in any situation. This probably developed from my past: as a pastor's child, I knew that I "should" act in a certain way. When I went to school, there were things I "should" do to get good grades and progress successfully. When I worked at Starbucks, there were certain steps I "should" follow to make sure each drink came out perfectly and each shift went well. There haven't been a whole lot of gray areas in my life, but ministry is a whole different animal. Ted said that he likes to say there are many things I "could" do. Some of them might be more or less appropriate in any given situation. Any one of the options might work and be seen as the "right" way, but that doesn't mean that the others were "wrong."

I think this is something that I can definitely learn. I am going to try to incorporate it into my learning goals for field ed this coming year, although I'm not exactly sure how. Something that will definitely help in my development in this area is being a mother. I'm well aware, from many years of babysitting, that there are many "coulds" and very few "shoulds" in parenting, especially in the child's early years. I should change my child's diaper, feed and clothe him, and make sure he sleeps as much as possible. But what could I do? I could breastfeed or use formula, or even do some mixture of both. I could use cloth diapers or regular. I could have enough outfits for months at a time or just enough to get through a week while doing laundry every few days. I could potty train early or late. I could have a crib or a bassinet. I could sleep in the baby's room or have the baby sleep in our room. And those are just the decisions we're making right now, not to mention the day-to-day and month-by-month and year-by-year decisions we'll be making for the rest of our child's life.

I know that babysitting has taught me a lot about the options, and I know that parenting will help me determine what I could do and what works for us as a family. But how will I translate this to ministry? Will it come naturally, or will I still want concrete answers there? I don't expect to have concrete answers about theology or the Bible, yet I want to know the "right" thing to do in every situation. This is going to be an interesting path for a type-A person like me, with my color-coded calendars, to-do lists, and black and white view of answers, but it's going to be a fun one! At least I have Wes to keep me sane. :)

Wes: Well, while Jess has been going crazy at CPE, I've been thoroughly enjoying my summer. I cannot remember the last time I had a summer where the only thing I had going on was a part-time job. It's a beautiful experience, and one I don't think I'll ever have again. So, I've been milking it for all it's worth.

My little sister, Katherine, came to visit for almost the entire month of July! She came in on the 4th--way better than fireworks--and she left on the 31st. We had a great time with her here, and I already miss her a ton. To give you a taste of what it's like to visit with us for a month, here are some highlight's of Katherine's visit:

1. We started, beat, and reached 100% completion on Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4. 
2. We went to the beach a handful of times to enjoy the sand and the surf. 
3. We watched movies whenever we wanted to. 
4. We toured all of local ice cream shops to determine which one was the best. 
5. We worked off all of the ice cream we ate by utilizing our membership at the Mercer County Community College pool. 
6. She slept in until noon most days... the jerk. Except Sundays. We made her go to church every week! 
7. We spent hours and hours coming up with new and improved ways to bug Jessica when she got off work. 
8. We went to Six Flags Great Adventure just to contract heat stroke while in line for the Superman ride. 

So be jealous. We rock.

But seriously, it was wonderful having her here. I feel like I've missed out on so much of her life while we've been up here in New Jersey, and even though we spend time together when Jess and I go down there, and even though Kat's come up here a couple times before, it was nice to have a good chunk of time to spend intentional time with her and get to know the wonderful young lady she is becoming.

I just wish she'd stop growing. She's almost taller than me!

Now that she's gone, though, I am transitioning my free time from hanging with her to working on my candidacy paperwork. I have a hefty list of things to do before my interviews in January, and I am trying to stay on top of it so that I give this the ample time and prayer that it deserves. Many of the questions involve a great deal of introspection, and so far I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spend time in prayerful conversation with God about where I've come from, where I am in life now, and where God is calling me to go in the future. I know that the completion of this process will mark the turning of a page and a change of chapter in the book of my life, and I am excited about what the next part of the story is going to hold.

As I continue working through the questions of the written examination and preparing the rest of the paperwork for the Board of Ordained Ministry, I'll keep all of you updated on the process, share with you my highs and lows of writing it, and probably throw in whatever other random thoughts pop up as I'm going through it.

Well, that's enough for us. Expect another post much sooner next time... Like next week. Things are abrewin' in this head o' mine, and after they mature, they will be poured out into the interweb for everyone's consumption and enjoyment.

Until then, you stay classy, World Wide Web!


-jess and wes

Our Summer So Far

Jess: Ted, my supervisor at the hospital, has pointed out to me at least once or twice that being pregant is a great metaphor for the work we're doing at CPE, but I've been thinking that it could be taken further as a metaphor for ministry--or at least MY pregnancy is a good metaphor for MY ministry.
 
A reflection on pregnancy as a metaphor for ministry:

All your life, you have been waiting for the right time to come along. You have been patiently--and sometimes impatiently--awaiting the moment when you discover something new. What will the new purpose in life be? What will it feel like? What is God calling you to do?
 
Then it happens. You've been feeling pretty normal, and it's hard to imagine that something has changed. But it has. There is new life blossoming within you, and there is no stopping it now. So far nothing seems to have changed. You don't look or feel any different than you did yesterday. But everything is different. Suddenly your whole worldview shifts. Will anything ever be the same?
 
For awhile, you don't tell anyone what has happened to you. How could you tell? Some people seem to notice that you're different. You carry yourself a little differently. You have some mysterious "glow" about you. Every once in awhile, you look like all that is inside is about to come back out. But no one really says anything, and you keep the secret. You speak of it only with one other person, in hushed, excited tones. What does this mean? What will we do? What does God want from us? 
 
Then the time comes to tell others. "I've found out what God wants from me, and I'm going to do it." Most are so excited, they can hardly keep their emotions in check. They always knew this was where you were heading; they were just waiting for you to discover it, too. Some are a little confused: "What about your other plans? What about your job? Your life will never be the same--are you sure this is what you want?" But there's no stopping you. No threats of not making or having enough money, security, normalcy can change your mind. This is the real thing.
 
Eventually, the newness of the thing wears off--for everyone but you. Sometimes, you are so excited you think you will burst. Other times, you realize the weight of this new thing (somtimes literally). What if you're not cut out for this? What if you've misinterpreted what God is saying? What if you're not prepared and it is a huge disaster? Most of the time, the excitement wins out, but there are definitely moments of fear. Fear about what the future holds. Fear about something going wrong. Fear about whether you really can do this or not. 
 
For awhile, you settle into a routine. It's a different one from before, but a routine nonetheless. Sometimes you even forget that your life is drastically different. Then you feel the tiniest flutter, reminding you of the change that will keep on growing. One day, the flutters will turn into jabs...then pain. There will definitely be pain, but when the pain is over, there is new life. And the new life does not mean the work is done. In fact, when that new life comes, the work has just begun. There is so much to do, to learn, to carry with you. This is a change that lasts a lifetime. 


Wes: So, Jess' part of the blog post is all thought-provoking and deep and stuff. Mine? Not so much. I just thought I'd fill all you good people in on what this summer has held for me so far. You see, this is my last actual "summer", my last year to enjoy this as a vacation from school, before I finish up school, have a baby, and will be working full-time in some form or fashion (two jobs, one job, three job... who knows?). So, I've been trying to make the most of it. 


My first week of summer was chalk full of church fun. The Annual Conference of the Greater New Jersey Conference was a wonderful time of fellowship, worship, and celebration. I got to watch on as my wonderful friend and ministry partner, Erica Munoz, was ordained as an elder in full connection. I was intrigued by the new church start that the bishop is pushing for--a Cyber Space UMC--and all of the possibilities that something like this could have. I laughed with and was challenged by Bishop Mike Lowry, our keynote speaker and my old pastor from University UMC in San Antonio, and enjoyed the chance to hear him preach again. It was a blessing to get to spend time with these people, and even though it makes me just that much more of a nerd, I thoroughly enjoyed even the business procedures that week. 


After Annual Conference, I had one and half days with Jess before I boarded a plane to Texas for a church camp. My buddy Shane, the youth pastor at First UMC in McAllen, TX, invited me down to be his prayer partner for a camp that he was speaking at. It was a fun and relaxing time, and I am very, very thankful that Shane flew me down for it. Our conversations were such a blessing, and I cherished our time together as we grew closer to each other through prayer, worship, and fellowship--especially during our trips to Sonic for Happy Hour--HALF-PRICED RT 44 DIET DR. PEPPER WITH VANILLA AND EZ ICE! 


After spending a week away from my beloved--the week that happened to be Jess' first week of CPE--I came home for exactly 3 days. I engaged in my Sunday duties, hung out with Jess, and had an all-around good time before jumping on another plane, leaving Jess again, and heading back to Texas for the wedding of one of my good friends, Marcus Biggot. While I was down there, I took my dad and grandpa out to a Roundrock Express game for some fun watching baseball. I had such a great time with them, Tomas, Korey, and Katherine. After a couple days with them, I headed to Kerrville for the wedding itself. The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was a lot of fun. It was great to be able to see so many beloved friends and old classmates. 


Since I got home from that, I've been doing as much work for the churches as possible and enjoying as much time relaxing as possible. It is a wonderful, wonderful summer, and I love it. 


How is your summer going? Let us know!


Until next time, you stay classy, World Wide Web!




-jess and wes

on being preggo

Jess: For those of you who are freaked out by change, I want to assure you that we'll be going back to normal with me starting the blogs and leaving little scraps of fun stuff for Wes to write about.

Well, I hope by now that most of you have read/heard/found out in one way or another that Wes and I are expecting a baby in early December. This has brought on quite a few questions, and a lot of excitement among our friends and family.

One of the first questions was "whatever happened to adopting?" Well, Wes and I definitely still want to adopt. It's something that's very important to both of us. But as we researched adopting an infant, we started to realize that we just weren't ready for that kind of process. There's a lot of waiting and wondering and nervousness. Also, we are too young to adopt through a lot of places and we didn't want to limit our options. Although we loved Angel Adoption, we then had to take a serious look at the cost. Now, we're well aware that having kids isn't cheap. The problem was that we just weren't ready or able to put forward upwards of $20,000 before even knowing if we would have interested birth parents. That seemed really terrifying for our first kid--especially considering how young we are.

Finally, we talked about adopting infants in general. As many of you may know, adopting an infant is hard. There are a lot of people who have fertility problems, are older, gay couples, etc. who have only a few options for having an infant at all. This isn't a problem for Wes and I, and we didn't want to be "competing" with people like this to have a baby. I for one am leaning more toward having a child or two of our own and then fostering/adopting older children or sibling groups as our children get older. We'll see, but adoption definitely isn't off the table--it's something for a different time/place in our lives.

Another big question is how we're going to manage school and a kid. Why did we choose now? As Wes and I sat down and talked about our options, we realized that waiting till a "good time" would most likely mean waiting for quite some time. If we waited until we were both done with school, that would necessarily mean waiting until I was at least a year or so into my first call, since I wouldn't be comfortable with going on maternity leave any earlier than that. We just didn't see a "good time" opening up for a long time, and we've been talking about kids for awhile. So here we are. Wes will be finishing school for good (at least until he decides to get a doctorate) at about the same time the baby comes. I'll be taking some time off at the end of the semester, and then not taking a J-term class this year, which means I'll have about 2 months off with the baby before going back to school. Then we're just going to figure out what works for our family in terms of class and work and everything else.

Finally, the most important question: are you going to find out if it's a boy or a girl? Yes! But don't ask us about names, because those are going to be a secret until little Wessica/Wessico's birthday. :)

Wes: YAY! We're having a baby! Woo Hoo! It's a boy, by the way. Jessica won't admit it, but it's true. I just have a feeling. And everyone knows that the father's gut instinct is always right when it comes to the gender of the unborn baby.

That was sarcasm. Jesus invented it.

We really don't have any other news to share, and our lives are now completely engulfed in baby mania, so I don't even have any pressing issue to talk about. Really, it's just the baby. So, since Jess didn't leave me anything specific to talk about, I'll tell you about some of my favorite responses we've received so far once we've told people that we were pregnant. And, just to make it entertaining, I will share them in the form of awards.

The award for Most Excited Response goes to my Papa and Mamaw (Mom's parents). Even after the blatant, "We've got great news, so we need you both on the phone" line I fed them, they still acted as if they had no idea what was going on. Then, when we told them, they yipped and hollered and celebrated with us in the most awesome and glorious way.

The award for Most Awkward Response that was Filled with the Most Amount of Sexual Innuendo goes to my Grandpa (Dad's dad). His initial response was something along the lines of "You finally figured it out!", and they just got... worse... from there. Definitely made Jess and I laugh, and reminded me just why I love my family in all of it's great glory.

The award for Cutest Response goes to Mallory Grau, a friend of ours from TLU. On Jess' Facebook post where we announced to the interweb our wonderful news, she responded with the phrase, "you did it!" We laughed at this for quite a while.

The award for Best Dumbfounded Look goes to my little sister, Katherine. We face-timed with my family to tell them the news, and Katherine's reaction was priceless. Her eyes got real big, and her mouth hung open for a good minute before she realized that she hadn't actually said anything yet. Then she smiled big and said, "YAAAAAAYYY!" It was great.

Well, those are the awards for now. Maybe if I think of any more awesome responses, I'll share those a little later.

By the way, shameless plug, we have our registries (I know, already!) at Target and BabiesRUS.

That's all for now! You stay classy, World Wide Web!

-wes and jess

Extension Ministries

Wes: WHAT? Wes goes first?! Has hell frozen over??? Well, no, but for the first time in our blog's history, I'm taking the initiative to start the blog. Why, you may ask? Is something wrong with Jess? Has some life-changing, momentous occasion happened and only Wes can accurately capture it in his wondrous webs of words?

Well, no. I just actually had something that I thought would be cool about, and I had a free few minutes to write it. Stop reading into this. It's nothing special. 

Gosh. 

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I wanted to share with y'all the experience that I just had while on a class field trip. That's right. Princeton has field trips. Be jealous. I am in a May term class right now. For those of you who do not know what I'm talking about, this is a three-week intensive class, usually pass/fail. The class is on Campus Ministry and Other Young Adult Ministry Models. It's amazing. I've absolutely loved it and I've learned a lot about myself and my vocational call from this class. We have spoken with church pastors who specialize their ministries to attract young adults, campus ministers who work specifically with college-aged young adults, and military chaplains working with our military (which, you might know, is comprised primarily of young adults). It's been wonderful. 

Our field trip was a two-day excursion to Washington DC, where we focused our time on military chaplaincy. We met probably 20 different military chaplains on our two-day trip, all of them ranging in denomination and military branch. Now, for those of you who may not already know, I have a deep respect for those who serve in our armed forces. They are doing a job many do not want and they are serving a country full of many who do not respect or appreciate their work and sacrifice. As someone who grew up in a military family, I saw just what duty requires of enlisted soldiers, and I will always hold the highest respect for those willing to engage in this work. I have also always been interested in military chaplaincy. I'd have to lose quite a few pounds to be able to enter into it, and it doesn't really fit with Jess' and my calls in life, so I have always been of the mind that it would always be a ministry avenue I would respect but never engage. 

Then, during this trip, I had the blessing of speaking to an Air Force Reserve chaplain. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, and his wife is also an ordained elder. And he made it all work by working in the Reserves. This opened up a whole new avenue of ministry for me that I had not even known about. If I were to pursue this, I could easily serve in a local church or campus ministry appointment as well as serve in the Reserves. It would mean that one week a month I work quite a bit more than the other weeks, and it would mean that I have to work hard to get in shape physically, but both of those things are doable! (Even if the getting in shape might kill me). So, now that I am home and am back in the real world, I have been thinking a lot about this and praying about it, and everything that I am feeling about it says that it's a worthy pursuit and it would lead to worthwhile ministry. I know that I want to be in the local church for a while first so that I can gain the experience needed to be able to best minister to all, but I am also going to start gearing up for this, finding out who I need to talk to so that I can get the ball rolling on this, working on building relationships within the church that could help me with this endeavor, and working to get in shape. 

Please be praying for me as I work toward this, and pray that--whether this is something that happens a few years down the road or right when I get out of seminary--God will use me to bless those serving in the military so that they too might come to know the love that their Lord has for them

Jess: Wes didn't even bother to consult me on this, and I feel like he has everything we need to say already, so...I'll write about this summer.

Those of you who talk with us regularly already know that I'll be doing CPE this summer. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Education. For me, that means I'll be working as a chaplain in our local hospital, Robert Wood Johnson, all summer long. It's a requirement of the ELCA's candidacy process, so I can't get ordained or even do my internship without first serving in this capacity. It's basically an unpaid internship as a chaplain. I believe that there are opportunities to do a CPE in a prison setting, but I don't think I'm ready for that.

Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm ready to work in a hospital, either. I spent quite a bit of time in the hospital as a kid. I went with Dad quite regularly to visit parishoners who were hospitalized for one reason or another. Sometimes I got to see new babies. Sometimes we were just there as support for a family during surgery. Once, a day a remember vividly, we went to visit a congregation member who had suffered a brain injury which took years for her to recover from. So the hospital isn't a great place for me. I've seen a lot of sick people and I guess I just have a fear of what might happen there. I tend to forget all of the healing that takes place. I forget that some people go to the hospital to have life-saving surgery, to have broken bones healed, or to have babies. I focus on the negative a lot.

Even more terrifying for me, however, is my tendency to empathy. When other people are in pain--be it emotional, physical, or spiritual--I feel that pain, too. And I always want to fix it. I'm going to be in a lot of situations this summer where I simply can't fix what's wrong. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that. It will be an interesting experiment in how much someone can learn in one summer.

As I was discussing (whining about) CPE with Linda awhile ago, she pointed out a few things that really have helped me get a grip on this and start to look forward to the summer. First off, I'm not in a trauma center, I'm not in a cancer hospital, etc. Although I will have to deal with death and severe illness, I won't be with the worst of the worst. What helped more, though, was Linda pointing out that I obviously don't want to be a hospital chaplain in the future. That's not part of my call to ministry. So she told me to make a goal for the summer--something that I want to achieve by putting myself in this sometimes terrifying situation.

Always the overachiever, I chose two: first, to get to a point where I can be in the same room as someone who is in pain and not be crying. I want to be able to help them in whatever way I can, whether prayer, time to talk, or just silent presence. That's going to be difficult if I'm bawling my eyes out. Second, I want to be in a place where I can go to the hospital and not tense up. I want to feel more comfortable wandering the halls, so that when I go to visit sick parishoners, I'm not making a bad situation worse with my own inability to deal with it.

Well, there you go...two discussions of extension ministries. Our journey just gets more exciting with every step!

You stay classy, World Wide Web.

Wes and Jess

Does Seminary Matter?

Jess: Our wonderful friend Allison sent us a huge list of potential blog topics over a month ago, and then we kind of forgot to write blogs forever. One of her questions-- which is pretty relevant now, as I complete my first year of seminary, and Wes is almost done-- was "why is seminary important?" So, here it is:

When I first felt the call to ministry in high school, I knew what the educational component entailed. Since my dad is a pastor, I already knew what he had been through, and I knew the general structure of college and seminary. I really didn't understand the point, however. Why should I go through all of that training when I felt called to be a pastor? Hadn't God already given me the gifts I needed to be a good pastor? Is a master's degree really necessary?

Even now, I definitely have some questions about seminary. I do however, recognize the value and importance of seminary education. Giftedness is definitely a big component of this job. Seminaries and candidacy committees are trained to recognize this. Those who feel the call should be able to recognize their own gifts, as well as their areas for improvement. Yet, like with many vocations, having the gifts does not mean one is actually prepared to do the job. Having the gift of preaching does not mean that I have a solid theological background. Having the gift of empathy does not mean that I could properly care for someone in spiritual need.

Seminary education is about more than just the classes, too. We live and learn in community. I have a nice pool of colleagues already, who I know I could call on in a time of need once I'm ordained. They each have their gifts and strengths, and I know that there are some who could help me with certain aspects of ministry that I am not as well-prepared to tackle. Our final this semester in Confessions is actually structured in such a way that our professor told us to prepare in groups, learning from one another and helping each other through the process.

Then there is field education, CPE (summer chaplain work in a hospital or prison), and internship. These things feed off of our education, yet also teach us where we need more work. For example, I already know that I have an issue with hospitals. I hope to get over my fear of hospitals this summer, but there is more to pastoral care of the sick than just being able to go into a hospital or nursing home. That's what my classes can help with--the concrete answers to situations. There might not be one right answer, but at least I'll have something to work with, books to consult, professors and other students to talk to.

Seminary is important. I can't describe everything I've learned this year, and how much more prepared I feel to be a pastor. I also know more about myself, and how far I have to go. There is much to learn, and many congregations would be sorely lacking without seminary trained pastors.

Wes: So. Seminary. That thing that at times seems like the bane of my existence as my professors and the administration try to suck the life out of me and at other times seems like a wonderful opportunity to grow in knowledge and faith of God.

Seminary.

Does it matter? Absolutely. Is it utterly important for any person seeking vocational ministry to be able to competently engage their calling and make a difference in the world? Absolutely not.

Seminary is meant to be a professional school--that which equips students with the tools of the trade so that they can be competent and effective ministers in their different context. This is not the only way to receive this training, nor--in some peoples' minds--is it the best. I know plenty of extremely effective and engaging ministers who have never set foot on a seminary campus. They are full of love of God and love of creation and have unique gifts in delivering the Gospel to the world. Most of them spent the majority of their lives working in a different career and were then able to take the things they learned in life and apply them to the preaching and pastoring of a church or congregation. They do an amazing job, and some have made a long-lasting impact in the world for the Kingdom.

But for the majority of pastors-to-be, especially if you are pursuing vocational ministry as their first (and hopefully only) career, seminary is not only an amazing gift for the ministry candidate, it is required by his/her denominational polity and candidacy committee. This is absolutely true for Jess and I. We have been charged by our denominations to actively engage our studies in the hope that we will be able to glean the knowledge and wisdom to better shepherd the Lord's sheep wherever we are sent. This is not meant to be a punishment of any kind, nor is it simply formality that we must endure before we are allowed to do the real work of ministry. This is a time of preparation, a time of discernment, and a time of growth.

For me, my seminary career has been a bittersweet experience. Princeton is a highly academic campus (no kidding, right?) as I spoke on in a previous blog post, and I honestly do not think that I am academic enough for the majority of the classes. This has led to me struggling through much of the work as I try to grasp the practicalities of what I'm learning. But, all that being said, I firmly believe that I have learned a lot--both about theology (in its different forms) and about myself. This has been a wonderful time altogether, and--whereas I do not necessarily feel completely ready for full-time ministry with all of its pitfalls, twists, and turns--I do feel like I am much more prepared for pastoral ministry than when I graduated from TLU.

So does seminary matter? For me and for Jess? Yes. For any and every person? Maybe not as much. But it has been a blessing for us, and will continue to be so (God-willing).

So that's all for now! You stay classy, World Wide Web!

Love,

Jess and Wes

Hunger Games

Jess: Wes and I went to see the Hunger Games at midnight when it came out. I've never been to a midnight showing before, so I was pretty excited about the possibility of finally seeing the awesomeness that is a movie at midnight. It was pretty fun, and the mass of high school/middle school kids didn't even bother me that much. I'm not sure if I need to ever go see a movie at midnight again, but it was definitely a fun experience. 

*****Spoiler alert*****  Don't read past this if you haven't read/seen the first book of the Hunger Games (and don't want it ruined). 



So there we are, watching the basically fabulous screen version of The Hunger Games. I really think they did a great job translating the book into a movie, which is a rare compliment from me. Part of that might have something to do with the fact that I read the book last summer and don't remember all of the minor details. Most of the changes were pretty necessary, like the fact that there are some extra interactions among the game masters, to point out what Katniss discovers by thinking through the events of the Games in the book. Cato, the last character to die, doesn't die in misery nearly as long as in the book, and he has an extra speech, both of which made me kind of happy. There was a missing character, and I believe she becomes important later on, so I wonder how they'll work that out. The only major problem I had was that I really didn't think Haymitch was characterized correctly. He didn't seem like someone who had been drinking his life away for 24 years. The Reaping was perfect, the Games were well done, and the killings were handled with grace.

What upset me about the movie was that the people (i.e. high schoolers and middle schoolers) seemed to completely miss the point of the book. Perhaps there were people in the theatre who hadn't read the book, but the movie made the themes very clear. Wes and I have been deeply disturbed by the themes in The Hunger Games, particularly the idea of the government keeping its citizens subdued by forcing children to fight to the death. Beyond that, there is the great disparity between district 1 and district 12. We're well aware of the reality of poverty in America, and although we are not divided into districts, there is a clear difference between the rich and poor areas of the nation and cities. As terrifying as this book and its themes are, it's not as if we're THAT far away from this potential. We like to think that we're safe in our democracy and that we'll be fine. Sure, 9/11 and the recession have dealt us some blows, but haven't we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps and fixed it all?

Maybe the problem I have with the reactions of the kids in the theatre is unfair. I honestly thought that maybe they just didn't get it, that the themes were too far-reaching and over their heads. Then I talked to the freshmen in the Confirmation class the following Sunday, and they didn't seem to have any problem grasping how terrifying the themes in the books really are. Maybe they don't get just how fragile our balance in the US is, but they definitely didn't see the books as something to laugh off. Yet the kids in the theatre cheered when kids died. CHEERED. Kids between the ages of 12 to 18, kids their age, were dying bloody, terrifying, ugly deaths at the hands of their peers. All because of the adults who forced them into this situation. And the kids in the theatre clapped and cheered when they died. 

Most of the kids in the books are not bad people. They are not killers, excited at the chance to win victory for their district. Most of them are hoping not to die slowly--they know their chances of surviving are slim. Yes, there are a few kids who have been trained for this, and are excited for the chance to kill their peers. But even they are the victims of a terrible system. As readers/viewers, we live in the tension of wanting Katniss to win the Games, yet knowing that she will have to kill other kids to do so. She is not the noble character Peeta, who simply doesn't want to lose his identity in the course of the Games. She wants to win, to get back to her family, and if she has to kill someone to do that, she will--and does. Yet should we cheer when she is forced to kill someone else for the sake of her own survival? Should we be glad that Cato, who finally realized how he has been manipulated for his entire life, dies an awful, bloody death?

I was appalled by this reaction. How did everyone miss the point? One of the articles I read about the Hunger Games was about whether to take kids under 13 to the movie. The author pointed out that, unlike in Harry Potter, there is no clear line between good and evil in the Hunger Games--at least not in this book. In Harry Potter, even kids can say "that guy is bad" or "that one is good." In the Hunger Games, each character is a mix--Katniss has the good characteristics of wanting to care for her family, of caring about Rue's safety, and of not hunting people down to kill them. Yet she DOES kill, she manipulates Peeta, and she breaks the law with Gale. How can we just call her "good"? In the same way, we can't call the other tributes "bad" just because they're not the protagonist of the story. It's a tough situation--and the kids missed the point completely. 

Overall, the movie was great. I wonder what we're teaching kids, though, if they're unable to grasp the meaning of these books/movies. They're not just fun books. There are some really deep, terrifying themes in these books. I've heard that some teachers are having the kids read these books in class. First, I hope that that doesn't ruin them, like most books were ruined for me in school. Second, I hope that they talk about the themes, about how this isn't just another teenage love story, about how that's not even the point! If we don't recognize the truth behind these books, how will we avoid a future like this?


Wes: So, after having a couple weeks to ruminate on this experience, here are my thoughts on the Hunger Games:


As far as books to movies go, this was superbly done. As we saw with the Harry Potter books, it is a pretty difficult task to take a book where a large portion of the plot is driven and explained by a character's thoughts and turn it into a great movie. To do this well, the Hunger Games movie had to add in certain scenes where the main character, Katniss, is completely absent. I thought that these cutaway scenes really added to the plot, as well as showed us some depth in certain characters that the author, by necessity, had to leave flat. 


Other added-in lines of dialogue really hit home for me and gave a side of the Games that could easily be missed. The first of these was when Caesar Flickerman is commentating on a previous Game clip, and he says something along the lines of, "This is when we see the tribute turn from killer into victim." He wasn't talking about a fallen tribute, but the change in one of the youths that was forced to kill another. This showed me that even those in Capital (other than Cinna, of course, who's just awesome) see the horror in this at times. The biggest one of these added-in lines for me, though, was when Cato, the brute tribute who most likely killed more than any of the others, makes the comment that he finally understands what's going on and that it doesn't really matter who lives or dies in these games as long as they are entertained. The horror of the situation was not lost on even him. 


All that to say, I thought the movie was great. 


But my viewing experience was ruined during that midnight showing, and it had nothing to do with the film itself. First, someone up in the projector room forgot to actually turn the projector on, so for the first five minutes of previews, all we got was the sound. I don't really care about this, but you should have seen the theater full of high schoolers flip out because the screen was blank during the previews. It was unbelievable. People were screaming and yelling about it, getting visibly mad about the lack of previews! 


I turned to Jess at one point and asked her, "Capital?" Our theater was close to becoming the very society that Suzanne Collins' book rails against. Because of a mistake in the projector room. 


To add injury to injury, every time one of the tributes died, the theater would erupt in applause. Now, I know that we as the reader/viewer are supposed to root for Katniss and Peeta. That's just how it goes. But this book was written and this movie made to show the horrors that can happen when we place our own entertainment above the lives of others. Yes, this was a movie. Yes, the heroes won. But the bad guys were not the other tributes. The bad guys are Capital, and the government and society that annually forces adolescents to fight for their very lives in a sick and twisted game. 


Cato was not the bad guy. 


Rue was not the bad guy. 


Thresh was not the bad guy. 


Fox Face, Glimmer, and Clove were not the bad guys.


President Snow was the bad guy. Seneca Crane was the bad guy. The peacekeepers were bad guys. To a certain extent, even Effie Trinket was a bad guy. 


But those high schoolers that night cheered over the deaths of innocent children. It still gives me chills to think about it today. 


I don't know if anyone else had a similar experiences while watching the movie. From what I've heard, this might have just been a midnight showing thing, where everyone was bursting with anticipation and could not wait to see their new favorite book up on the silver screen. I hope no one else had to experience that, and I hope no one I know was one of the ones cheering. 


It was scary. 


It was Capital. 


So now we want to hear from you! What did you think of the movie? What was your experience while watching it? How close do you think we are to being the Capital portrayed in Suzanne Collins' heart-wrenching books?


Let us know!


You stay classy, World Wide Web!




-wes and jess

Tejas

Jess: Although we had some wonderful suggestions about what to write for this blog, we decided to go the boring route and tell y’all what we did over our trip to Texas.

I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say our bi-annual trips to Texas, while wonderful, have been pretty stressful at times. With the exception of our trip last August, we have always traveled down for someone’s wedding. Wes has been in those weddings, and our trip this November will be for a wedding I’m in. Weddings are wonderful. We love seeing our friends get married, and we’re so happy that so many have included us in their special day.

But weddings are also a lot of work—even for those of us who are just bridesmaids/groomsmen. At the very least, the two or three days leading up to the wedding are filled with parties, rehearsals, and last minute planning. Hence our trip in August: we were trying to have a time where our agenda was our own. We failed pretty badly at making the trip relaxing, though, because we flew into north Texas, drove down to Austin/San Antonio, and drove back up at the end of the week. Not exactly a relaxing time.

Somehow, though, this trip has been by far the most relaxing one in the more than two years we’ve lived in New Jersey. It seems like we finally hit a good balance. We knew enough of our general plan to know when we needed to crash with friends and whose car we would borrow. But we didn’t have a million things we had to do. We had whole days where we just hung out, with little to no agenda.

To top off the amazingly relaxing experience, Tim and Brittany’s wedding was just plain wonderful. They had a little outdoor ceremony on the first hole of a golf course. Our friends Jeremy and Amanda co-led the service, and it was just awesome. Then we headed into the golf club building and the reception was beautiful, too. We were able to hang out with all of our TLU friends, there was dancing, there was cake, and the food was delicious. Although Wes and I didn’t get to see a ton of the bride and groom, we did have one awesome party experience. And we didn’t have to be responsible for anyone or anything.

We really miss our friends in Texas while we’re in New Jersey, and we love going home because we feel like we’re celebrities when we get there. Everyone is so happy to see us, they change their work schedules to accommodate our vacation, and life is just so easy. We feel incredibly blessed to have such great friends from our time in college, and even more blessed that they’re willing to go through the pain of long-distance friendship.

Wes: So Jess decided to leave it to me to actually tell y’all what we did. Our departure from Philly was one of the most potentially stressful flights that I think I have ever had. When we made it to our gate last Wednesday, we were told that we were not going to be able to make our connecting flight from Dallas to San Antonio. Instead of getting to the Alamo City at around 9 pm, we weren’t going to be able to get there until midnight. And since we had a two-hour drive after this, it wasn’t going to get us home until 2 am. That wasn’t going to work. So I called up some of our friends in the Arlington area and we sparked a plan. Elizabeth would pick us up from the airport and take us to Jon. Jon would then drive us from Arlington to Hico, where we would meet my dad and go home. It all worked out, and not only were we home before midnight; I was able to get a Dublin Dr. Pepper!

Here was the rest of our schedule in a nutshell with some major points to along with it:

Thursday—Slept in. Dad made breakfast tacos. Jess went to bachelorette party. Wes played pool into the wee hours of the morning.

Friday—Slept in a little less. Picked up Jess from Austin. Ate lunch with grandparents. Jess, Wes and Dad played pool into the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday—Hung out with family and went to breakfast. Had coffee with one of Wes’ mentors. Got lost on the way to wedding. Made it to the wedding with seconds to spare. Partied all night with good friends whom Wes and Jess dearly missed. Made some very important life decisions.

Sunday—Went to church at University United Methodist Church. Heard a great message and worshipped with Mark Swayze Band! Lunch at Magic Time Machine. Jess went dress shopping for Kelli’s wedding. Wes and friends floated the Comal River. Rudy’s for dinner.

Monday—Woke up at 5 am to drop Dad off at Texas State. Led chapel at TLU and saw more friends and great mentors. Coffee with Shook. Lunch with favorite professor. Sat in on storytelling class. 3 hrs in Freddy’s Frozen Custard doing paperwork. Dinner at Mamacitas. Late night fun and great conversations with Ryan.

Tuesday—Wes has early morning candidacy meeting with DCOM. Wes was unanimously approved! Yay! Riverboat tour on San Antonio Riverwalk. Lunch with Mark Swayze. Dinner with more of Wes’ family.

Wednesday—fly home…

Well, that was our trip in a nutshell. To be precise, a pecan shell. For those that we got to see and hang out with, thanks for making time for us! For those we didn’t get to see, please know that we love you, we just made it a point not to make any plans this time.

Goodbye for now, Texas! We promise we’ll be home again soon! But until then, you stay classy, World Wide Web.

-Jess and Wes