Weekly post

July 4, 2005

Dear friends,

This is the first of what I hope will be weekly posts to my blog. It's Independence Day, and we are having a cookout with friends this evening to celebrate. I hope that you are having a holiday that suits your excitement level!
Last night I made my Fabulous Potato Salad. I haven't made it in a while, because frankly it's a pain in the neck to make, but it's very yummy. It requires, to start with, cooking, peeling and cutting up five pounds of potatoes. (That's a lot!) But occasionally, it's worth it.
I'm still floating about 10 feet off the ground over the news that scholarships and student loans combined will give me a full ride through divinity school. Of course, there is the small matter of paying back the loans. But the Stafford loan Web site has a calculator that tells you how much per month you will have to pay back, and it's very manageable. Especially since it would be hard to make LESS money as a pastor than as a graduate student!

I'm beginning to learn my way around the Wake Forest campus. The divinity school is housed in Wingate Hall next to Wait Chapel, and I expect most of my classes will be in that one building. The administrative offices are in Reynolda Hall, across the Quad, and the library is across the Quad and about a block west. It's a well-designed campus, very pretty, and not hard to find places. The map is also well-designed.

Wait Chapel has auditorium-style seating and seats, I would guess, maybe 700 in the orchestra section with a sizable balcony. There is a tiered "stage" that includes an organ, space for a choir, and an altar and pulpit area. Wake Forest Baptist Church holds services there on Sundays. Wait Chapel was the host for a presidential debate in October 2000. Twice-weekly chapel for divinity students is held in Davis Chapel, a much more intimate space within Wingate Hall.

One day when I was at the divinity school taking care of some paperwork, I passed the dean in the hall and greeted him. He greeted me by name, which impressed me, and invited me to chapel, which that day was being held in Wait Chapel, because it was also to be a service honoring Ed Christman. Christman is a very dear man in his 80s who was chaplain of Wake Forest University for years. It was a very moving ceremony.

The university is hardly deserted during the summer, of course, but it will be interesting to be on campus in the fall once classes start.

Grace and peace,

Beth