I'm just about ready to get started. All of my application materials are in, and I should know if I'm officially accepted at BGU in a couple weeks. In the meantime, I've ordered a lot of the books that I'll need to read for my first class, Overture 1 in Seattle from January 12-23. I have to read over 3800 pages for this class! I'm really looking forward to it though. While I'm waiting to be officially accepted, I'm working on ordering my life to make room for reading and writing. I'm going to need to be really organized over the next five years for this degree to happen.
As a part of the application process I was required to set up my personal learning community, or PLC, for the program. These are a group of three to five people who will be holding me accountable throughout the course of this program. They'll be reading most of my research and providing me with important feedback. The people on the PLC are my wife, Julie McCabe, Errika Jones, John Vecchi, and Tim Parsley. Julie and I have been married for ten years, and she has an amazing heart for serving the Lord. She's always been my biggest supporter, especially in those fun times when I've had crazy ideas and she's the only one who gets me. Errika Jones is an incredible administrator at the Pittsburgh Board of Education. She and I work together on the LAMP mentoring project, and she's a good friend who is probably the most transformational leader I've ever met. She loves the city, and she values relationships. John Vecchi is an all star LAMP mentor at North Way who has an amazing heart for serving the Lord. John is a good leader who understands the value of externally focused ministry. He's also a great example of a life long learner. Tim Parsley is a good friend who is a very talented artist and communicator. We developed our relationship when he was a pastor of New Hope Church in California. I'm sure Tim will have valuable insight for me as I go through seminary classes because he has a formal seminary education. He is definitely an "outside the box" thinker, and he's a man who knows what it is to follow his heart.
So I'll wrap up this post for now, but I'm excited to get going. I'm holding this entire process in God's hands and I'm hoping that He'll be glorified through it all. If this world is ever a better place because of something that I did, it will only be because Jesus led the way and I followed.
