the next step
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It's been a while since I've posted. Here's why.
I have officially graduated from Asbury, and now Cherith and I are heading on to what seems to be the next step the Lord has laid out for us. When I was accepted to Durham's postgrad program, we had hoped to be able to move overseas next year to continue the Adventures in Slavery to Higher Ed. However, as is pretty typical for American students, I didn't receive the funding necessary for us to do this. Despondent, I deferred my program of study until next year with the plan of working and saving money this year. We were hoping to remain in the Wilmore/Lexington area, seeing as it is cost-effective and would allow us to continue being with our church family. This was all dependent on me getting a local job, however, and I had impressively disastrous results in my three-month search. The other possibilities we entertained were moving back to western NY to be near Cherith's family or moving to NC to be near my family. We applied to many jobs, and a few weeks ago suddenly the stone started rolling and shedding its moss. Though I haven't had luck yet, Cherith received three invites for interviews - one at our alma mater, Houghton College, one at Roberts Wesleyan (in Rochester, NY), and one at Duke University, all in financial aid. Though the thought of being at Duke initially thrilled me, the doors opened widest for us to return to Houghton. Within a week Cherith had been flown up to interview, been offered the job, accepted, and we had found an amazing place to live. Eerily enough, the day after accepting the position, I found out from Durham that they would allow me to pursue my postgrad studies part-time from the US, assuming I would 1) have access to a strong theological library (which Houghton does) and 2) be able to fly over twice a year or so for face-to-face meetings with my advisors (Lewis Ayres and Carol Harrison). Furthermore, Houghton has set a precedent by offering Cherith 50% tuition remission for a Master's degree in music, which will allow her to continue on with her dreams.
All that to say, we are sad, excited, nervous, and awed. If you're the praying sort, please offer a petition for me to be able to find the right job, and for us to trust Him to provide in the meanwhile. We will mourn the proximity to friends and family that we have had here at Asbury (especially my brother and his wife), but on the other hand we gain back several friends and much of Cherith's family by moving back to NY. I will also mourn the loss of Ale-8 and Pazzo's amazing pretzels. However, I will receive in return the best chicken wings money can buy.
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