Why Carson Attends a Jesuit School

Or, what Carson's doing, why he's doing it, and all the other things we've been asked about his schooling. 

Disclaimer: This is the post that I've been meaning to write. It's imperfect and I'm not the family academic, so I may have gotten things wrong. I'm going to go ahead and say that if you still have questions after reading it, please email me. 

There are several of you, our wonderful readers, who have only heard bits and pieces of what we're doing. You probably know by now that we don't live in Washington anymore - that we're in Ohio. You possibly even know that Carson is going to John Carroll University. The school itself might be just a name to you. We'll be honest - it was Carson's last choice, the very last place he applied. We'd never heard of it before and kept forgetting that he'd applied. It was the "other" school at the end of a long list of places with bigger names. 

In so many ways, we've sensed God's leading in moving here. We were really praying for a program that would offer funding. We went through our undergrads debt-free but held jobs that covered those expenses and didn't give us much in the way of savings, so we didn't have tons of money to spend and we'd rather not take out loans. There were several schools that offered really good scholarships, but they didn't cover the whole expense or hey didn't give any sort of assistantship or internship that would be good for Carson's resume. We took those as a no, though there was one school that we almost chose, since it was nearly funded and did provide opportunities he looked for in a school (plus it was only a few hours from my hometown). 

The very last school to contact us, the one we had forgotten about ended up being the school God provided. John Carroll interviewed Carson over the phone for a graduate assistant position at the school and he was accepted! We took several days to pray about it and really felt that God was leading us to move to Ohio. As surprised as we were (we just never thought about Ohio!), we were excited to move. 

So why a Jesuit school? 

First of all, you might want to know what it is that Carson's hoping to do. Yes, he did get his undergrad in Biblical Studies and yes, he's the best public speaker I know, but we've prayed long and hard about pursuing seminary and an eventual pastoral role and for now, we believe that God's closed that door. So this is not seminary. John Carroll is a Jesuit school - the Jesuits branched off of Catholicism around the time of the Reformation. Jesuit schools have a high standard of education. They're really good schools. 

We don't view ministry as something that must happen within a "Christian" setting alone (pastors, youth pastors, missionaries), but as something that all Christians do where they are within their own field (dentists, teachers, sales managers at car dealerships...). Carson wants to be a light in a dark place. His desire is to live as a follower of God in a field made up of mostly unbelievers. 

Carson wants to pursue teaching, research and writing (basically, tenure) at a university. Though we may end up at a Christian University at some point, his goal isn't to teach Christians. He'd like to study and teach in a more secular field, among people who aren't Christians. He'd really like to be published one day, and he's already thinking about the things he'd like to research. 

Carson's master's degree will be in Theology and Religious Studies. He's a graduate assistance in that department of the school with, as you've seen recently, his own office, a proximity to professors who know all about his passions, and some experience in the field. He works for several professors at the school, helping grade papers (for undergrads), filling in to teach when the professor is away, helping do research for their books and projects. In every way, he is in his element. He's so passionate about academia, adores what he's doing, and eats up all of this learning and experience. 

We'll be here until after he graduates in 2014, and then there will probably be more school. We only know what's ahead of us in the next two years (and then, we don't have details) but feel free to ask questions!

To see the beautiful campus, click here!  

More Ukraine Pictures

All of these pictures and SO MANY more can be found by clicking this link.

Ukraine, Week One

Hard to believe that we landed in Kiev just over a week ago, and we're already to the end of the Beaufort team's stay in Ukraine. Today, they'll fly off to Paris and leave Chloe and I here alone.

Here are a few pictures taken during this incredibly busy week.

Maxamovicha Church, our home base.

Where I'm staying (it reminds me of a house from Lord of the Rings)

My room (I'll be moving in with Chloe now that the team has left)

Dental clinic - they put in SO much work this week! 11 hour days with virtually no breaks. They got all the kids' teeth cleaned, checked and fixed. It would have cost thousands of dollars and it was about a month's worth of work. Wow, God is good!

I got my teeth cleaned too...

Two friends at the orphanage

Dental team with the completed list of kids

My roomies, Ale and Chloe

The team, both American and Ukrainian, at a barbecue we had Saturday night (plus kids from orphanage)

The light/fountain show we went to at the Roshen candy factory on Saturday - impressive! 

missionary training?

It's sort of funny that this is the kind of "hardship" I'm posting about because let's be honest, it's not a hardship. 

At the moment, I have sore arms. Very sore. Why's that?

The washing machine decided to be ridiculous and fill up with water and then just sit there, all wet and covered in soap. So sweet Stephanie and I wrung the water out of the clothes, I hauled them upstairs (it was heavy) and rinsed the soap out in the bathtub. After that, they were ready to be wrung out again and thrown in the dryer. 

Now I'm sore. And sort of embarrassed that I consider this a hardship. What an easy life I really lead! 

a $400 bad decision

Nearly three years ago, I was in Ukraine, in the back of a van that didn't have seats.

We thought it would be a really bright idea to stand up and "surf", making a competition over who would be the last to be standing without touching the walls. So we surfed, the entire time we were there.

I think something gets in our brain flow during mission trips to make stupid things happen. Like bus surfing.

Anyway, on this day, I was not surfing. I was sitting in the back, right on the front lines of the surfing. As we were riding along, the van moved a little too fast and someone came down on the right side of my face, really hard. I hard a "pop" and it hurt a bit but my only real thought was "How big will this bruise be?"

As the morning progressed, so did my face. My left cheek gave me an attractive chipmunk look, and I began to realize that my teeth no longer touched in the back. Problem.

Later that day, it popped back into place, after having people try to pop it back in and trying to eat bread to make it work. Since then, my jaw makes super loud popping noises when chewing and has occasional pain. Nothing horrible, just reminders of the "incident".

After our honeymoon in June, I got an ear infection due to sand in my ear (from violent waves that kept throwing me to the ground. I am a wimp.). My jaw began to ache on the side where my infection was, and I thought it was related. A dull ache that brought headaches (that are maybe migraines? I'm not sure... again, I'm a wimp). And the occasional lock of the jaw. Not so normal. So we shopped around for doctors that do that kind of thing.

At the beginning of March, we realized that the ear and the jaw weren't related, so I went to an orthodontist who diagnosed it as TMJ, which is a jaw-joint thing. A slipped disk, like in your back (but not that bad) in my jaw. Not a big thing now, but it could be.

So he referred me to a specialist to get a nightguard. I had the impressions made for it this week and will get it in a couple weeks. It's supposed to help and I'm hoping it will!

So $400 later, I'm regretting that whole bus surfing thing. It was fun while it lasted but it looks like I'll be constantly reminded of it for a long, long time!

Ukraine

So today, I was reliving mission trips.
My last time in Ukraine was in January 2009, which was almost two years ago. I was in a totally different place in life (or so it feels... you can fit a LOT of change into two years!) and it nearly seems like a lifetime ago. I journaled a list of things I miss about Ukraine. It was long.

My husband has not had the privilege of traveling as much as I have. He's been to Canada and obviously to Mexico on our honeymoon, but that's it. So I was telling stories and explaining how camp worked. And what we did. Bible studies, services, all that kind of stuff. I don't think he really understood. I got super animated and just confused him a lot.

But as always, it was good to relive those times. To think about seeing God move a zillion (give or take) times in one day. To think about conversations about the gospel. To study the Bible as teammates. To really appreciate the necessity of prayer. To "get" a taste of spiritual warfare. To see change and growth and the glory of God take hold of a person's life.

I don't know if there's anything else like it. There hasn't been for me. Those five short trips to Ukraine were absolutely life altering. That's incredibly dramatic to say, but it's true. I don't have a single doubt that those experiences have played into my life and been part of the process. They were worthwhile and wonderful and amazing.

And I took it a step further and found a couple of our old blogs. I can't seem to locate the January 2009 blog, but here are the 2007 Ukraine Blog and the 2008 Ukraine Blog. Good stuff. And as always, the blog doesn't even cut it. It was way better in person.