Update #8 from Princeton Theological Seminary: "What a blessing!"

Dear family and friends,

Well, the time has come for a new school year, and with it, some wonderful additions to my update list. Before I get going here, as I've said before please feel free to let me know if you'd no longer like to receive my updates and I'll take you off...no love lost. =)

Now, to go further up and further in: there is too much to talk about already! Let's start with the end of the summer. I finished up at First Pres, Visalia at the end of August only after preaching my very first sermon ever! My text was the wedding at Cana...and amazingly enough I felt like it went very well and received a lot of great feedback. What a blessing! Leaving the kids was very difficult as I had become rather attached to them over the summer. We finished the summer off with a girl's spa night and several great weeks of youth group. Again, what a blessing they are.

Along those lines, as I spent some time reflecting on my time at home I found that while I had been apprehensive about returning to Visalia for the summer, and really had no intentions to do that, God knew what he was doing. It was great to spend some time at home with my mom. It was wonderful to reconnect to First Pres and the families there that I used to know better and to get to know some of the newer families and people in the church. It was indeed another example of God's great faithfulness!

After I finished up my job I loaded up my car, drove to Bakersfield and picked up two of my best friends from college to begin our 3,000-mile cross-country road trip! In just seven short days we arrived in Princeton, but not before seeing a friend of ours from college in Colorado, stopping at a glass marble factory and shop in the middle of Kansas, going up 637 feet in the St. Louis Arch, experiencing the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and getting cheesesteaks in Philly! We got my stuff unloaded and prepared for a very busy few days before Jules and Brian left: New York City, Princeton, and church and antiquing!

Now that we're on to present day, school has officially been in session for three weeks! I love my classes this semester, it has been good to reconnect with friends, and enjoy some of my favorite east coast places. And to answer the question I'm sure you're all asking, no, the fall colors are not here...not quite yet.

Well, I believe I'll wrap up for now....this has gone on long enough. I'll write again soon more about my classes and such. I hope you are all well. Please find my address below...I love to get little notes and stuff! ;-)

Many "what a blessing!" moments I wish for you today,
Megan

10 Things...

...I did this past school year that surprised me.

1. I drove myself across the country...twice.
2. I learned that New Jersey is not all industrial and gross. There is a reason they call it the "Garden State."
3. I discovered a strange enjoyment of Malaysian food.
4. I enjoyed living in the snow. Really, it was the idea of four real seasons that made it.
5. I developed an intense and unexpected love for New York City and began acquiring "my favorite places" there.
6. I traveled...a lot. Daytona Beach, Florida; home for Thanksgiving and Christmas; Louisville, Kentucky twice in the first two months of 2008; NYC and the United Nations for four days; NYC and Boston with the girls for a week; Guatemala in April...and coming up later this month, San Jose, CA for the PC(USA) General Assembly. =)
7. I decided that Princeton is not as crazy-liberal as my previously all-West-coast mindset had told me.
8. I theologized systematically.
9. I grew to really enjoy Princeton, NJ and the east coast feel.
10. I turned down a job with money attached to it in favor of "The Great Unknown"...which will coincidentally be the topic of my next post.

Update #3 from Princeton: Snow and the United Nations!

Dear friends,

I promised I'd write again sooner, and here I am! Greetings from what is currently the very white, freshly blanketed with snow, state of New Jersey! Snow has been both one of my greatest excitements and most serious disappointments since moving to the east coast. Exciting because, well, it's beautiful and leaves the world feeling peaceful and cozy, and on days like today, cancels classes! (We're enjoying our first snow day of the academic year!) And yet it has been disappointing because of the sheer lack of snow we have had this year; only once since returning to campus in January. Even so, I have hope that it will snow again before winter has expired. For now though, in the few hours I have remaining in Princeton before heading to New York City (I'll get to that momentarily) I plan to walk around campus taking pictures of snow falling and covering everything recognizable. It truly is breathtaking.

On to New York City and the United Nations: this evening I will begin the first of 4 and a half days of a conference called the Young Women's Leadership Experience, a joint event with the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) (!) and the National Council of Churches. I applied to this particular conference back in January, squarely in the middle of finals, and then promptly forgot about it. When I received my acceptance letter a couple weeks later I was shocked, which has since turned into a myriad of other emotions: excitement, apprehension, unqualified-ness, joy, and still more shock. I was one of six women who were selected out of a large applicant pool who will meet with six other women from around the world who are taking part in a longer, two-week version of the event. The 2008 theme for the CSW is "Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women" and the purpose is to give visitors an experience with the United Nations, the National Council of Churches, and to engage global women's issues through the ecumenical movement. While there we will lead a worship service,

This kind of opportunity would only have been available to me while living here in New Jersey. Being close to the City means I can take the train (considerably less than a plane ticket) and don't have to miss much in the way of classes. What an incredible opportunity! However, I would appreciate your prayers for the next four days because I'm not quite sure what I've gotten myself into or what to expect. I've learned though that those are always the best times...when I spent a month in Guatemala while in college our team motto was "Tentative. Flexible. No expectations." and this was certainly one of the most amazing and rewarding times in my life. Our conference begins with dinner tonight at 6:00pm EST and will end on Tuesday at 2:00pm; during this time I would appreciate an extra prayer.

One last thing...for many of you who spent a lot of time with me in Santa Barbara you may already know this, but today is the one-year anniversary of my grandma's death. While I am getting a chance to honor her by taking advantage of this opportunity in NYC (because I know she would be so proud of me) I know today still isn't going to be easy for either me or for my mom. However, I'm going to try to celebrate my grandma's life and remember her for who she was...a great woman who had a lot of love in her heart. Extra prayers for my mom and for me today would also be appreciated.

I'll sign off now, while the snow is still falling fresh and I can go revel in it...momentarily at least!
Love in Christ,
Megan