Hello Prince of Peace:

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            As I am writing this, I am in Michigan enjoying the last week of my winter break. I spent the holidays with my fiancée Bethany and her family. It has been nice to have some time off because the fall semester of seminary pushed me to a breaking point. There was a lot that was required of me, and I could feel the pressure and was breaking down. One of the things I had to complete in the fall to be eligible to graduate in May was I had to take the exit language exams for both Greek and Hebrew which consisted of a vocabulary part and a grammar translation. The Greek exam was translating parts of John 6 the bread of life discourse, the Hebrew exam was translating 1 Kings 18 the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. I had to retake the Hebrew part of the exam because I did not pass the first time. I passed all the language exams, and I am on my way to graduating in May. I also had to write two exegetical studies that took a lot of my time to write. I completed everything for the fall semester and will be getting ready for spring classes and my final semester.

            It is an exciting time for me as the countdown is on to Call Night in 89 days( not that I am counting them down). Graduation is getting closer and my wedding in Michigan in June. As these events get closer, I will be sharing the links and information with you so you can watch and celebrate these events with me.  For the call process I have entered the interview process with churches. As of this letter I have three churches that I will be interviewing with. One is in Greenleaf Wisconsin and the other is in  Illinois and the last one is in Kansas.  It is exciting to be in this part of the process, but also nervous and humbling to know these churches want to interview me to be their associate, Pastor. This is 3 of a possible 6 interviews that I will be having because of how small my class is that is graduating, there are 28 guys who will receiving a call this year in my class. My class was one the biggest to enter the seminary and now we are the smallest classes to graduate from the seminary.   

During this break I have been doing a lot of reading for enjoyment which I did not get to do much during the fall semester. I am currently reading Mission as Nuremberg about Army Chaplain Henry Gerecke who was called to minister to the Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg at the end of World War II. The book is really good and I am learning a lot about what happen at Nuremberg during the trails. One of the questions I ask myself as I am reading this book is if I was in Gerecke’s place would I minister to these men after all the evil they did? During this break I am also beginning pre-marriage counseling with Bethany with Pastor Hubbard. For the counseling he is having me read the book As for Me and My House by Walter Wangerin Jr. It is written by a Lutheran Pastor who tells the story of his marriage and the mistakes he made and how to avoid them. I am getting a lot out of the book, and it is making me think about marriage and how the Bible talks about marriage. Over break I also have been working on building my model airplanes again. I built a B-1 Bomber and a F-117 Stealth bomber.

 I am doing good just enjoying life and looking forward to the events that are coming up. As I close this update I would like to ask that you would keep me and Bethany in your prayers. Please pray for us as we interview with these churches that we would be called to a congregation where we can best serve the Lord and the needs of the congregation. Please also pray for us as we prepare for the wedding in June and moving to my first call, that the Lord will be with both of us in the midst of all this.

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(peace) שָׁלוֹם

Ryan