Well, the first day of school has come and gone. It went very well, and we are all still alive after being informed of just how much work is involved in the program. :-)
The day started at 6:30 with us getting ready and feeding Haden, then eating some breakfast and leaving for the school at about 7:50. Chapel today was a special one, with a flag ceremony and the reading of the Great Commission on probably 20+ languages.
The rest of the day was spent in orientation, with another round of it tomorrow. We've so far gone over classes, gone through registration, and learned the in-and-outs of how the school works. We also got to meet a lot of new people, and found out that we are the only first-year couple with a baby, which is unusual for the school, but you do what you can I guess.
We also discovered that on average there is 3-4 hours of work and studying to do every night, which means that it's a very good thing that I sleep polyphaisically. Polyphaisic sleep is where you sleep a small amount at night and supplement it with scheduled naps during the day time. Currently I sleep from 2 AM - 6:30 AM with two 20 minute naps, one during our lunch break and the other at around 10 PM. I've been doing it for several months now and have much more energy than I did when I slept monophaisically (the normal 8+ hour sleep that most people get), but now I am totally off topic.
Haden did very well today in the nursery. He laughed and played and only got really angry a couple of times. When I went to pick him up at the end of the day he saw me and gave me a really huge grin, which made my day.
My course schedule is as follows:
Chapel daily at 8:35 AM
Mon/Wed AM: Christian Evidences
Mon/Wed PM: Confident Preaching and Old Testament History
Tue/Th AM: Spiritual Disciplines
Tue/Th PM: Confident Preaching and Life & Teachings of Jesus
Friday AM: Introduction to Ministry Studies
In 4 weeks we will have a Research Week, which we can use to catch up on whatever we are running behind on, and after the 9 week mark we will have a free break week to rest and renew ourselves. Following the break week, there will be a whole new set of classes to take, at which point I will update with a new course schedule. The classes, while short week-wise, are extremely intense and count for full college credit. By the end of these 2 years, I will have 128-132 credit hours. Kind of scary, but I am looking forward very much to having the tools needed to enter the ministry.
Well, this post has gotten rather long, so I will end it here. The next post is scheduled to be on Monday the 24th, so look for us then! Until such time, we thank you as always for all you do for us and wish all the best blessings upon you.
-Jared, Danielle, and Haden
Wow - you guys are disciplined! That's a LOT of studying! I'm still intriqued by your sleep system, Jared. I don't know if I could do or not. '
ReplyDeleteTrivia - did you know that the house I grew up in (till age 9) is now the parking lot there? Our house was on the corner of 35th and Louisville. I don't know if the big tree is still there or not - it was for ages but it might have been cut down by now. Oddly enough, we attended another congregation during that time (now disbanded University church of Christ) but I went to the VBS's at Sunset. I placed membershiop at Sunset when I was a senior in HS and we were living on 40th and Peoria. Then my folks became members there a couple of years later. My dad (Duane Crawford) was an elder there for almost 20 years.
Thinking of you all!!