So unlike my last ministry update, which, while true, was written tongue-in-cheek for a bit of fun, THIS one is a bit more along the staid and serious lines.
We have decided, the husband and I, after a lot of discussion, that it is time for him to continue his education.
As a recap - when we accepted this pastorate, five and a half years ago, we understood that we would be moving a distance from any university where he could finish his degree. We knew this, and we were okay with it. We came here, we began ministry, and during the course of that we decided to work on David's ordination. Now, in our denomination ordination has three major components. The first is two years of full time work in a congregation. The second is the filling out of paperwork and passing of interviews by the local board of ministerial development. The third is fulfilling the educational requirement. While the first and second requirements sort of are what they are, there is a bit of flexibility in regards to the third. One can choose to fulfill these educational requirements through the course of their degree or they can take part in something called Flame Courses. Flame is the name of the courses that are shortened to the essentials and presented either in one week intensive formats or through distance education. Essentially they provide a way for ministers to get ordained while still remaining ministers, or else they offer the opportunity for called individuals to pursue training while keeping their workaday lives relatively intact.
Anyway, this is what my husband did, since we were far away from other options. Also Flame was faster, and SIGNIFICANTLY (like, by hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars) cheaper. And that mattered to us a lot.
So he took the Flame courses, he finished the required classes, and then a few summers ago he got ordained. While we had thought about his degree that was started years ago, Flame seemed to provide us with what we needed/wanted for this next stage of our lives. And while we assumed at some unknown point in the future he might go back to school and finish his degree, we were okay with what we had.
Maybe eight months ago or so we started to talk more seriously about him finishing his degree. It was a challenge to figure out how to do this. First of all the schools nearest to us are still quite a distance away and wouldn't accept all of his credits so we would have to attend the school in another province where he began his degree years ago. However, this school wouldn't accept as credit any of his Flame courses, which makes some sense seeing as they were never intended to substitute for a university credit, but was still frustrating. With the number of courses needed, the degree would financially be well beyond our reach without taking out student loans - which we had no intention of doing.
In addition to this problem we had the issue of location. We knew God was not asking us to leave our pastorate right now, and yet there appeared to be no distance education options available at this school. How to finish the degree without the necessary money OR being in the right location seemed to be an insurmountable problem, but it was laying heavily on our hearts all the same and we had many discussions about it.
Well, a few months ago we discovered that there was a solution to one of our problems at least - the school did have the option of courses taught 'by directive' which were offered essentially as distance education options. Not all courses were offered by directive, and the courses couldn't be taken whenever the student was ready but were started and ended at set periods, but they were available. This was excellent news for us because it meant we could continue our ministry here and not have to leave the province.
The second decision we made was to drop from a bachelor's degree to an associates degree. The associates degree is a two year program that would use the largest percentage of David's current credits and allowed him to graduate as quickly as possible. Since our goal is ultimately for him to get a bachelor's degree, this associates degree will set him on that path and give him something for all of his hard work while opening the door to other universities with more flexible distance ed. options to upgrade to a bachelor's. With the associates degree option he has six courses left to take.
Once we made this decision we contacted the school and they informed us that they were hosting two directive courses this coming summer and that David could enroll in them both. He has since filled out the paperwork and sent it in, and also we have paid our deposit to hold our place in the courses. All that remains is to pay the balance on the courses and purchase the texts and he will be a student once more.
I have to admit that I'm nervous about this upcoming season of life. I remember well the year before ordination when David took something like ten Flame courses over a twelve month period of time in order to be prepared to be ordained. Every day was a push to finish coursework and email it in. Several of those Flame courses were one week intensives offered at specific locations and so we managed at home without him for one week while he was taking courses in Houghton, NY and another week while he was in southern Michigan and a third week while he was in Brockville, Ontario. It was a hard year and I'm not eager to repeat it. On the other hand, I can't wait. I can't wait to have this piece of paper he has worked hard for and wanted so badly framed on our wall and out of the file folder in my mind labelled 'Things We Should Do Someday'.
If he takes two courses by directive this summer, that brings him down to only four courses left. Ideally the school would offer one of their university credits in the fall in an intensive format where he could travel there for a week. I'm not counting on that, but it would be excellent if it could happen since those one week intensives used to be a mainstay at the school. It wouldn't be impossible for him to even be done in time to graduate next Spring with the graduating class. It will be a large financial burden, but in the end, it will be worth it.
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