PT500

Whoooooaaaa.... we're halfway there                              

WHOOOOAAAA-OH!

livin on a prayer!

Not only great in the Rockband experience between readings and assignments, but no greater singing prophet of the 80s than bon jovi could've given us this gem of truth. Halfway through the semester and we're looking to be in good shape. We're still hunting for and of course praying for balance in the force of our lives: schoolwork, workwork, playtime and praytime.

To focus on the schoolwork, this week we highlight Spiritual Formation with Martha Giltinan. A quick aside concerning Martha (as it is inevitable): We were warned about her more than any other professor as someone who is difficult to follow and “a little over-the-top”. She's a Drama Queen Empress and “little over-the-top” is far too insufficient, however, she has offered some of the richest in-class experiences we've had in some time and she approaches the material from such a sense of pastoral conviction that this class is one of the highlights of the week. She doesn't strike me as one who would offer benefits for brown-nosing, so I'm very comfortable lauding her... I'm also comfortable going on record as saying that when I first heard her launch into soliloquy I thought she sounded like a cross between Bullwinkle J Moose and Billy Sunday (what higher praise is there for a first impression?)

Spiritual Formation classes I've (Greg) had in the past have been very basic, “let's read some Dallas Willard” and learn about spiritual disciplines and talk about all those things we want to do for our growth in the Lord but certainly don't have time to do. Good stuff, but always the same stuff. I don't believe we've cracked open any Dallas Willard yet, but the disciplines and the quest for virtue hasn't changed all that much... now we're just reading everyone who likely influenced the Willard. This is great news! We don't have to try and be inventive or creative about fasting, lectio divina, Sabbath rest, the practice of the presence of God, etc because learning how to grow in Christ-likeness and abiding with God through the continual and active presence of the Spirit isn't new either... the people of God have been getting it wrong (and getting it right) for centuries!!! Blessed be the Name!

So, from this class we've learned to envelop ourselves in the great cloud of witnesses that we might learn a lesson or two and go and do likewise, trusting that God will draw us close and conform us to the image of his Son as we walk on that way of becoming like Jesus (status viatoris for the Pieper fans out there). We're going to forget to read our Bibles somedays and we're gonna forget about the blessing of fasting and just be cranky; but all glory to Him who loves us and calls us His own and nurtures us with His Spirit that sometimes we will get it right (whatever that means in this crazy world of spiritual formation) and we will mature and grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord. Since I opened with a hymn, I figure it's good to close with one as well:

             

We thought it was like "Fall Break"...

...boy, were we wrong!  So, when we read "Reading Week" in the middle of October on the Academic Calendar, we did mental high fives.

But, as we perused our syllabi and all our due dates, we gradually realized that it was nothing like a Fall Break and that we would be unable to go visit people or Niagara Falls or even just experience what the bourgeoisie refer to as a "staycation".  Alas, this was not our lot in life. 

First and foremost in our minds was our four Early Church essays and quiz to be turned in and taken by Thursday.  The class is excellent and the questions fair, and the essays only a page.  Easy shapeasy, right?  Have you ever tried to write all your thoughts about Ignatius of Antioch's historical context on a single 12-point font, 1 inch margin page?  I didn't think so.  Sadly, it was fairly easy to fit the place of women in the early church on one page...and that was even with the added business of having to support your claim with reference to the Didache.

We thought about posting all of our assignments for your perusal, but we will pick and choose because we don't want any pfeiferphiles to become pfeiferfoes.  Pictured above is Greg, chagrining as he attempts to put his finished essays in the dropbox online only to find that the internet has gone out...again.  More on that little problem later.
By the by, Greg highly recommends The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by Alan Kreider.  It it a fairly small book, with ridiculously small font, but which packs a lot of information on the nature of the church and the changes she underwent as Christianity became the religion of the empire.

Noel, pictured above, immensely enjoys Early Church, perhaps a little too much.  But, she was also pre-disposed to the idea that this would be her favorite class at Seminary.  In any case, doesn't she look so studious and intellectual in this picture?  If you'd like to see her answer to one of the "essays"-a creative flyer, click here.

And about this time, they recalled the word study due for BI600 (endearingly called this because nobody ever remembers the real name and thus far, it seems strange to have a grammar class in seminary)...and in addition to the Word Study, an Exam on the first half of the class.  This means, the entirety of a "little" book called "Greek for the Rest of Us" and all the English and Greek grammar your brain can hold, and some that it can't, for that matter.  Pictured to the left are Noel's lifeline, her flashcards and the Greek book sprawled on their dining table in receding light to accentuate the feeling of dread which accompanies them.  Please be lifting up the exam which happens Monday, the 25th, and for especially Noel's memory to be entirely alert.  Greg had 5 semesters of Greek and is already a grammar guru.

 We also have a book review, reflections and our regular reading assignments as well as 22 hours of work each week.  So, we're starting to feel the pressure big time. 
Are you wondering how on earth we survive all this chaos?

Fellowship of the Cheese

The Dolly Sods area was first explored by the Fellowship of the Cheese during a brief period of Seminary angst in 1746 to find the limits of West Virginian lore from the British Crown. The area was generally avoided as too impenetrable until the late 1800’s. Charlie Treichler wrote an early description of the area, published in Gmail in 2010:

"In West Virginia, via Maryland en route from Ambridge, Pennsylvania, is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles, fairly well frequented , yet so savage and inaccessible that it has rarely been penetrated even by the most adventurous, like Geoff Mackey, who has yet to explore any place via backpack and camping tent. The settlers on its borders speak of it with a sort of dread, and regard it as an ill-omened region, filled with inbreds, panthers, impassable (except to Noel who decided to tumble on into them despite the dangers) laurel-brakes, and dangerous precipices ie big rocks. Stories are told of hunters having ventured too far, becoming entangled, and perishing in its intricate labyrinths...or stolen by the hillbillies, verdict's still out. The desire of daring the unknown dangers of this mysterious region, stimulated a party of  [handsome] gentlemen and two gentlewomen . . . to undertake it in October, 2010. They did actually penetrate the 'disgusting' country as far as the landmines allowed, and returned with marvelous accounts of its savage grandeur, massive quantities of pulled muscles and troop bonding to be found there.  All was recounted at Piper's Pub in the urban Pittsburgh, any embellishments likely owed to Irish Car Bomb ingestion."

Sometimes, Noel leaves for urban backpacking adventures...

which makes Greg look like this

Noel had never been to West Virginia before and she was terrified, her only experience with WV is the movie Wrong Turn. And as you can tell from the title, WV was the wrong turn.  So, I take back my bias of West Virginia as the incest bred terrifying hillbilly state...at least for now. After all, it was really beautiful.

I hope you can read this sign. If not, here it is: WARNING: Highly Explosive LIVE BOMBS from WWII training can still be found in Dolly Sods.  Do not touch!  Happy Trails.

The Fellowship--sorry, Wes!  My backpack was too tall.

 

The Survivors! Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed the journey.

Some Enchanting Evenings

Trinity School for Ministry has a rich heritage of academic rigor which has typically been hidden behind an incredibly pastoral outlook and focus on practical ministry.  All of the professors are actively involved in their local churches while also teaching full-time and the expectation is that students follow that lead.  Some of this is built into our program through Mentored Ministry or our 1hour/week Trinity community service. We are also involved in a number of extracurricular activities while at Trinity as a way to supplement our studies with an opportunity to exercise our theology.  Please be praying that we find a new church home while we're out here so that we can reactivate our love for doing ministry.  In the meantime, Greg has jumped into an often overlooked, misunderstood, or ignored ministry of the church:  chanting.

Geoff Mackey, 2 time Allegheny County little league chanting champion leads a group of monastic wannabes (myself included of course) once a week on the basics of Anglican style chant for the purpose of worshiping the Lord and adding a little more spice to the already red hot Book of Common Prayer. This has been a great aside to ministry study that conveniently happens to also be ministry study. So far we've gone through the better part of the Prayer Book that can be chanted, ending every evening chanting through the Compline. It's really marvelous... to be worshiping the Lord with a handful of good friends, joining with the community of worshipers who have been chanting their prayers for centuries. Below is a sample of what we're doing musically... there's more reverence involved when chanting the Prayer Book or Psalter ; )

And now for the rest of the story...

And now...the moment you've all been waiting for!

The view from our front porch to our street...that truck is a staple of Melrose Avenue

it belongs to our neighbors across the street, I totally could have sworn that it had a "charleton heston is my president" sticker on it, but I checked again the other day but nope, wasn't there.

maybe i'll get Denny (our neighbor who owns it) one...i guess my imagination thinks it would fit!

This was out first real meal in Ambridge.

Lemon dill salmon and salad...yum!

FYI, our camping chairs are still in the front and seem to have become permanent lawn fixtures.

Our quaint little porch and awning area.  To the left you can see St. Vladimir's Ukrainian Orthodox church.

They're our landlords and currently, our pirohy dealers of choice. 

Lesson #1 in Ambridge:  Fridays are Pirohy Fridays at the churches...pretty much ALL the churches.  That means on Friday, you can go over to the basement at St. Vlad's and find several folks ready to serve you hot, cold or frozen potato or sauerkraut pirohies with or without butter and onions.  Fr. Michael says that people don't understand the concept of tithing and they expect a little extra, so they do the pirohies :) 

If you come visit, you're sure to find us with some of these on hand or we'll take you over to St. Vlad's for some pirohy goodness.

Woo hoo!  One of the first things we noticed in Ambridge is how much they like to party...not in the classical sense but rather churches like to hold festivals and our first week in town, Good Samaritan Parish, one of five churches on our street, was having their annual festival.  As you can see below, it was an event sponsored by Miller Lite...okay, we're not actually sure that's true but it was really funny that they had a beer tent with different cover bands and lots of two-steppin'.  

Our particular vice took the form of BINGO!!!!

  We figured the house always wins but in this case, we didn't feel too bad givin' to the house :)

And then....Noel won!  We had played a couple of different nights, it was 7 cards for $1.00 so we really only spent about 5 bucks, but check out this card...single winner, baby!  14 bucks in our pocket, awesome.

Here's the tell all sign...it was great.  The priests of Good Samaritan live down the street from us and they're really really kind.  Maybe cuz of the Miller Lite? ;)  We tried our first pierogies here...yum-my!

Another Pittsburgh favorite that we experienced: 8 dollar tickets for an enjoyable night at the ball game ain't too shabby.  Ah, it's nice to be in a town where the team sucks and the price reflects it.

It was a really fun outing with a bunch of Trinity peeps.

So, for Pirates games, they literally shut down the bridge to cars and people just walk on by...can you imagine the rioting if they tried to close down a bridge in Chi-town?

So, you can't play ball?  Well, kill 'em with aesthetics!

PNC has an AWESOME view of the city and the river which runs right by it.

Look! Isengard!

Same ol' us

This is Gabe, he likes to make funny faces and yelling for the Pirates,

he's our friend Geoff's kid (and Erin's too...gotta give credit where credit is due)

I love this photo, I caught every person off guard, awesome.

All these people are Trinity folks...Geoff is on the far left with the orthodox priest beard, Chimela is from Africa and he's sitting below him, Karen (and her husband, John, who wore matching Canada sweatshirts to the game) and Meg are down in the seats by Greg and they're awesome, Trevor's the Yankees fan from South Carolina, Paul was clearly caught in the flash light...he's from San Diego so he pretty much looks awesome no matter what.  Brian is over there in the Cubs outfit, but get this, he's also from San Diego.  Weird, eh?  Mike, Scott and Bartholomew are in the back row and they all rock.  The first two are our neighbors and we like to hang out with them.  Bartholomew's from Tanzania and has two sets of twins!  The Africans enjoyed the game though I think it was mostly because they got kettlecorn. :)

*****************

 There's a better shot of our friend, Brian...the security guard stopped him, looking quite concerned and partly perturbed, to inform him that the Cubs were not in fact playing in PNC that night.  Brian was like, "oh yeah, I know, I just wear this to all baseball games."  Hilarious.  Pittsburghians definitely take their sports waaaaay too seriously...especially the ones that really suck. 

And here's the real reason that everyone goes to Pirate games: Pierogy races!

Oh yes, you read that correctly...those are pierogies on the field.

In case you're wondering, the purple one named "Oliver" won

Pierogy butts!

 And then, the Pirates actually won...astounding us all!!!  Obviously, Geoff and Ben were just a little excited.  They probably won because Mike was in the back praying that it wouldn't go into extra innings...I said, AMEN and AMEN!

So, as you can see, God's put us in another great city with more great people...and thankfully, a waaay shorter commute to get to urbania.

The Move

6,000 miles and gabillions of bird poops, dust storms and intermittent rain later, we arrived in Elmhurst, IL
Pseudo home sweet home where the Pechanios took excellent care of us...even though we proved to possibly be the most difficult houseguests they've ever had...more on that later!

Well, here's the dirty car:

 Then we picked up the truck and the moving party began

Special thanks to Phyllis, Jenn and Matty for all their help, sweat and tears
(just kidding...unless you did actually cry)

 On one hand, we felt like, "awesome, all our stuff fit in this one unit" but at the same time, we said, "man, we've got a LOT of crap"...and we're only in our 20s...more stuff to Freecycle, I guess (yes, that was a shameless plug...go check it out, it's green, it's free, it's cyclical...what could be better?)

 So proud, so muscular.
In his favor, we did manage to fit all our stuff into the 16 footer, just perfectly.

 

 Sorry about the really dirty windshield...imagine driving with that thing.
Also sorry for the short supply of photos from this trip, things like time constraints, a UTI and not traveling with the truck the whole time held us up.  But, we arrived in Ambridge to about a dozen folks on the lawn ready and willing to help, even after having moved about 3 people earlier in the day.  The whole truck was unloaded in about 45 minutes and there began our relationship with our new community.  Alleluia.

 And that's just the beginning...