Life Decisions

Hello Beautiful Folks,

I will not apologize for neglecting my blog, because I have been busy living life. This summer I immediately launched into my internship at Reformed Church of Highland Park, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience. With only four weeks of internship done, I took a 10 day vacation back to South Dakota, and now I am having a lazy Saturday morning, a perfect time to update my blog.

I can hardly express all the wonderful opportunities I have had at the church this summer. The congregation is so alive and full of needs, gifts, energy, and beauty. Everywhere I walk in the church I encounter different groups of people utilizing our building. In fact, over 35 different community organizations use our building space for meetings and worship....that characterizes the ministries of RCHP to a T. I am the general practitioner ministry intern, hence I am exposed to a little bit of everything. :) And I love it. One of my main events this summer is leading a mission trip to Willingboro, NJ (near Camden) and I have been making plenty of connections through the process of planning. In addition, I am helping with the youth group, meeting wonderful teens. I am also in charge of the "transitions" age group (18-30)- we meet for conversation and dinner, mostly- although last week we joined the "Alliance for the Disabled" for Karoke and dancing (going on in our fellowship hall)- and might I say it was a beautiful moment in my ministry.

In addition to my church internship, I had the wonderful privilege of celebrating my first anniversary with Mr. AJ Munger. We went to New Hope, PA for a fireworks show and stayed in a bed and breakfast town while perusing a local art show. It was wonderful to spend some romantic-y time with AJ, since he has also been super-busy with full-time work at Whole Foods, graduate courses, and making a little progress on his Small World Farms business.

So, to the life decisions component of my summer. I have been going back and forth regarding the Masters of Social Work degree at Rutgers, for plenty of factors that I will save you from at the moment. In any case, the important details is this: I'm Doing It! Yes, I am officially in for the long haul. Two more years in Princeton (well, NJ at least)....for a grand total of two masters degrees. Actually, I've already been offered a field education site at Enable, Inc....which works with children and adults with disabilities right in Princeton. I am grateful for this opportunity, as I contemplated pursuing a placement with this organization during my MDiv degree.

Let me recap- I am working toward graduating with my MDiv next year, and my first year of MSW work. I will graduate with the MSW in 2013. Woohoo! I can taste all the student loans already! :):)

Okay, that's my short recap of the past few months. I hope this post finds all of you enjoying the gifts God has given you- and might I say, my life is full of friends and family who are having babies left and right- I want to say my sincere congrats to all the happy families (and to remind everyone that AJ and I are thoroughly happy as a family of two at the moment) . :):)

Love to all in the name of our Loving God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit,

Emily