Well, as usual, LOTS has happened since I last blogged. I don't write very often, which means that when I do end up writing lots of changes have occurred in my life and there is much to get share about what is new.
In my last post I was nearing the completion of my MDiv in Christian Apologetics. Now, I've completed that degree and as God's providence would have it I almost immediately got offers of jobs relating to that completion! Within days I was offered an opportunity to preach at a small town church in nowhereville Iowa, that was a wonderful experience! They paid for a hotel in the small downtown that was really neat, and one of the families in the church took us out to dinner the night before preaching. The only downside was kind of feeling on the spot or having to walk on eggshells about various topics. For example, unlike my upbringing, I have no problem with drinking. I don't feel like God in any direct way prohibits drinking (getting drunk is a different story). Well, as a pastor I sometime feel like the bar for right behavior is moved higher. That is, it might offend someone who is an alcoholic to see a pastor drinking, and I don't want to offend a weaker brother (or sister) who's struggling with alcoholism. In conversation after service during their potluck meal I was chatting with a friend of mine's family and drinking came up. I mentioned something that indicated that I didn't have a problem with drinking and even mentioned a story where I had gotten drunk. Later Michelle (my wife) said that I probably shouldn't have told that story because it makes me look bad and it could offend people who are against drinking completely.
Moving on, there was also an almost immediate offer to teach at a Christian college satellite campus program Crown College, Crown-30. I absolutely loved it! I taught the class "Ministry Communication," but in reality it was simply a sermon writing class. It was great! I had only four students, and they were all very engaged and did very well with the class. Two of the students were foreigners and English wasn't easy for them, but they did very well nonetheless. It was also really great for me because it gave me tools to use when I'm writing my own sermons. I now use a combination of the sermon writing class methods that I took for my seminary and this set of sermon writing methods I taught.
Lastly, and most importantly, I've decided not to pursue a chaplaincy in the Air Force as I once wanted. There are various reasons but basically it would extend my time in military service, I'm tired of the military lifestyle, and I'd like to move on to a career where I feel more at home. So, I'm getting ready to retire from the military! As I write this I have only nine months and twenty-three days (believe me, I'm counting) until retirement.
The coolest part of my military service though is actually a transition program that I'm allowed to use at the end of my service called SkillBridge. The SkillBridge program is very cool. Essentially I can end my service early to go work as an intern at virtually any job I want that has joined the program. I work as an unpaid (by the company) intern, but I continue to get paid as a military member. If I were a business owner, I would jump all over such an opportunity. Essentially, the business with which you are doing your internship, has no specific requirements except that they have to promise that at least some of the time they'll offer a job to the interns they host. I guess some people were cheating the system and starting their own businesses, hiring themselves as their own intern, and working their own new business with nothing really to show for it at the end. Say for example I wanted to start a lawn mowing business. I could "hire" myself as an intern, and simply get paid by the military to sit around doing nothing for (up to) six months. The military essentially stops checking up on members once they enter the internship program and it can be as easy or as hard as the employer and the military member wants it to be. I've known some people who "work" as interns at large IT companies where all they do for their internship is complete online training programs every once in a while and log in to a Zoom meeting once a week or so. Sure, they might end up with some certificates that say they know some program, but really it's just sitting around getting paid to do next to nothing.
I have decided to do a meaningful and directly related to what I want to do after military service type internship. I already have an internship as a teacher at a K-12 Christian school in Kalamazoo, MI. There's a couple different reasons for choosing western Michigan, but generally, it's closer to home, but not home. There are also four different small Christian colleges in the area and I would like to someday move up to the level of professor and this area offers a number of options for that. I'm hoping to teach Bible and History, but I'm not sure exactly where the school's needs are. I was able to visit and interview with the administration a few month ago and it went very well. One of the couples that worked in the school had previous lived and worked in Okinawa and knew some of our friends from Okinawa so it was neat to have that in common. Also, the new administrator is originally from Ohio and was an administrator at the school I attended for high school (Dayton Christian). Those might seem like minor things, but it's really nice to have points of relationship already in place. Unfortunately, I'll be starting as an intern right near the end of the school year. That means my internship will start off with me being a substitute teacher. Hopefully, this internship will turn into a real, full-time job. I'm excited, only 122 days!
