Endorsement, Horizon, and Fall Break

It's about time I update you on all the latest happenings, including my Endorsement Interview! I had my interview on Oct. 13 and was Recommended for Endorsement! It is not an official Endorsement yet, as the whole Candidacy Committee needs to vote on the recommendation. I'm guessing I'll hear in the next couple weeks what the outcome is. The interview went well...and my committee was very supportive.

The Sassy Ladies trip in Austin was great. One of my highlights was going two stepping at the Broken Spoke, just outside Austin. What a great place! Looked like a 'hole in the wall' but turned out to be THE place to be on a Thursday night.

I still struggle with this system, of course, and now it shows up more in my experience of the way Internship is setup. There isn't one general pool of internship sites for all ELCA seminarians...congregations interested in having an intern need to apply to the seminary that they want an intern from, and those are the congregations that we end up at as interns. Seems to me like there should be an ELCA-wide system that supports all seminaries instead of making congregations choose one or another.

There's another internship track in addition to the 'regular' one I describe above - Horizon. It can be expensive to have an intern because the congregation is expected to pay for housing, health insurance, and a small stipend. Congregations that can't afford to pay for all of that can apply to be a Horizon Internship site and they will then be expected to pay only a third of the cost, the other two-thirds being provided by the seminary and the synod....I think...don't quote me as a source on these details! However it happens, Horizon is a different track for Internship. Students need to apply for a Horizon site if they are interested. It is a longer application process than the 'regular' internship track - more essays, etc. If a student is accepted into Horizon, they are then assigned a site and need to decide whether or not they still want to go. If so, that is their site. If not, they fall into the 'regular' internship track and get matched up with a congregation that way.

All this is to say that I applied to the Horizon Internship program. I don't think we hear about it until January, so I need to apply to be in the 'regular' track as well. I'll let you know how it goes. Horizon sites are all across the country, both urban and rural. I requested to be at an urban site. We'll see how it goes!

Classes are good...it's a little crazy around here. We had fall break recently (the last week of October) and it seems like for the rest of the semester we will continue to feel overwhelmed with all this work - especially paper writing.

Fall break was great! TH came for a visit the first weekend...so wonderful. TM came from Colorado for the rest of the week. It was so good to see her! She did some of her own sightseeing of San Fran while I did some work, and then we went to wine country together for some views at Cline and Paradise Ridge wineries. We stayed with KD and JW, and enjoyed some live music and cards at a coffee shop that night. The next morning we stopped by Muir Woods and Muir Beach on the way back to Berkeley. So beautiful. Those redwoods are breathtaking.

That's it for this morning. It's time for me to get ready for church. I hope you are enjoying the fall...the chill is starting to set in around here.