Friday, June 24, 2005

My last "Hurrah!"

Heidi and I will be officially moving off the "holy hill" of Gordon-Conwell, not June 30th, as originally planned, but around July 15. This is a huge relief to both of us. Mostly me, because I'm currently on sabbatical. Well, sort of. Actually, I'm attending what's called the Spurgeon Sabbatical. It's about 15 pastors and one token student (that's me) whose soul purpose the next 10 days is to exhaust our lives for Jesus together. So moving next Thursday would have been a nightmare! Check out the schedule:

8:00am-8:45 Breakfast
9:00-9:30 Community Worship
9:45-12:00pm Study of 1 Peter
12:00-2:00 Lunch and Pastoral Reflection
Free time (i.e. take a nap)
5:30-6:30 Supper and Pastoral Reflection
6:30-7:45 Theological Discussion
7:45-8:30 Community Worship

As you can see the days are quite jamm-packed! But this is one the best experiences of my life. I've been so encouraged and challenged by the love and witness of these dear brothers. Each day after lunch and supper one of us shares with the rest something about our ministry and/or lives and then we pray for that particular person. Yesterday I shared. That was so powerful, Spirit-led, hope-renewing.

Studying through 1 Peter is fantastic. Dr. Hafemann leads all of our study and discussions. He is an exegetical machine. It is truly a gift to be able to learn under him this one last time, just in the nik of time. Exaltation of the Exiles our study is called. Lot of talk about suffering and our hope in the promises of God. I'll probably write on some of that over the weekend.

Link:
Spurgeon Sabbatical

3 comments:

Faye said...

That sounds awesome, Josh! Especially the prayer time. May God refresh your soul as you and Heidi prepare to follow His lead. I thought about you guys a lot last week while hanging out with this year's Gordon-Conwell Shan team in Bangkok/Chiang Mai. So fun. Tell Heidi hello for me!

Daddy, Manf and Bean said...

Josh,
I am soooo jealous! wish I could somehow crash the party and be a fly on the wall. I would love to hear about the time after your done. Please give me a ring. 978.821.0283
I have been ravished by Piper's 17 biographical studies on the redwoods of church history...
(http://www.desiringgod.org/library/biographies_index.html)I can get you a CD copy of all, let me know.
the guys from our church have begun meeting in my garage once a month to digest one by one these messages. I want my soul to be rocked by God and all He has for me...us!
look forward to hearing from you.
best to you and Heidi.
DannyO

RW aka Uncle Action said...

hey josh, I hope you can find this post buried in your comments section, I have no other way to say hey. Anyway I am excited that you are done with seminary. I am still slugging away and will be for a while because of my job and school. I hope you are going to keep it real Mainer style up there. Hope to hear from you and see you some time this side of heaven.
Your pal,
Rusty