Abby and Me at the top. 

And the learning continues...

Today as I was doing some reading for one of my classes I came across a quote that really struck me. The book is Anthropology for Christian Witness by Charles Kraft. Now, sometimes I am a little bit behind so if you have already thought about this then just excuse me but I thought it was a really good point.

God has buried so much treasure in the Scriptures that we will never find it all until the interperetive perspectives of each of the languages and societies of the world have been applied to them. As we work with different languages and peoples, we find that each perspective asks different questions of the scriptural data. When we can see the questions that African and Asian and Latin American people ask of the Scriptures and see the tremendous comprehensiveness of the revelation, then we can enter into a grander understanding of God then we ever could when we simply asked the questions of that datea that our one cultural perspective brought to our attention.

It is awesome that I actually enjoy everything that I have to read and I can see its relevence to my life and what I have been called to do.

9/11 5 years later

 

Last night we drove about 40 minutes down the NJ turnpike to a lookout point that had a wonderful view of the city so that we could see the lights where the World Trade center was. We could see the World Trade Center lights from Nyack but they were very faint. 

 

Ok go...our version

 
Katie and Sarah are the girls in the front. Me and Amy are in the back. Abby is taking the picture.

This picture makes me smile. We took this in the city on Saturday. Ok Go has provided us with mucho laughs since we have been here so we just had to take a picture with these posters. It was a perfect day to play in the city. The weather was great and there was lots going on. We came up on a farmer's market which had apple cider donuts. I had never heard of such a thing but everybody raved about them so I bought some for us. Wow, they were awesome. I think I need to learn how to make them. There was also a street fair just below Time Square with lots of cheap stuff to buy. After the street fair we went to Dylan's Candy Bar. It is every child's(and aparently 20 somethings)dream come true. It was very exciting for Katie(my roommate) because she found some candy bars from the UK that she can't get anywhere else in the states. We also went into the famous Bloomingdales for Abby to buy something. Amy found a huge Japanese book store to play in as well. Katie, Sarah, and I found out that it is not so easy to find flip flops in NYC in September. Sarah's flip flop broke as we were walking down the street so we proceeded to try to find flip flops. Sounds easy right? It wasn't. We checked about 10 different places before Sarah decided to just tape the flip flop to her foot. It worked out pretty well. It got her all the way back to the car with no problem. All in All it was a great day. 

Instructions included...

...the ability to follow the instructions are not. We were pretty proud of ourselves until we actually put the bookshelves up and realized that we put several pieces upside down. I could not be mad about it b/c we shared so many laughs while putting it together.

 
Putting things together is not my gift. Everyone should notice my cute black and pink tool set. I think it was a very smart purchase.

 
As you can see, Sarah was a big help. No, she really was.

 
"Maybe if I stare at it long enough I will understand." 

Top 10 Things I Learned on My First Day in Seminary...

 

10. My Theology in Global Context prof is an Asian Dr. Williams who talks like Robin Leach. Now is that a mix or what?

9. I have to go to class with Boys...and lots of them.

8. I'm not the only one with an accent, but I am the only one with a southern one.

7. Theology class with the Asian Dr. Williams/Robin Leach is a good place to make out a to do list for the rest of the afternoon.

6. Alliance people study about Lottie Moon. I am not taking that class this semester but I am sure I will before I am done here. For all of those out there who don't know anything about the Alliance, I say anybody who studies Lottie Moon is ok in my book.

5. When The Graduate School of Mission says that they concentrate on spiritual formation, they really mean it. We are actually doing a devotional book as part of the class. I am pretty sure that I am going to be spiritually stretched further than I knew I could be. This is good though. That is why I chose ATS.

4. At ATS you begin class in prayer and sometimes end in it as well.

3. I am going to be reading ALOT. I already knew this but I was happy to discover that 80% of it looks very interesting.

2. A seminary student should have a Bible with them at all times. Apparently I did not get the memo. I won't make that mistake again.

1. I AM EXACTLY WHERE I AM SUPPOSED TO BE! 

1200 miles, 2 books on cd, and 2 days later...

 

Well...as much as I would like to think that I don't sound that southern, I can't hide it. As soon as I introduce myself to someone they immediately feel the need to tell me I am from the south and ask which state I am from. I guess I should get used to it since I have only met a few people so far. I guess if you are reading this you are at least slightly interested in my life so I will tell you a little bit about our trip up here. (See the above pictures for visual references) Bekah and I left a little bit before 5am last Monday morning. After discovering that we could not pick Rick and Bubba up in GA, we decided to stop and get a book on CD at Cracker Barrel. If anyone does now know you can get an audio book there and trade it in at any of the Cracker Barrels. It is a wonderful system. They were even so kind as to give us a map of the U.S. that showed ever single Cracker Barrel on it. If you are ever on the road and need to know where one is you know who to call. Anyway...we chose a novel and we were on our way. We saw lots of funny road signs which kept us amused. One time we were in tears from laughing so hard. We made it into Newport News in time to have dinner with Laura,Ryan, and baby Grace. After dinner we went back to thier house to visit for awhile. I got to hold Grace for the first time, which was very exciting. It was great to visit with them and we could have talked all night but we knew that we had to get up early so we could not stay all night.
The next morning our first stop was Cracker Barrel. The exits in Virginia are very misleading. They tell you that there is a Cracker Barrel on the exit but they don't tell you that you have to go about 2 miles and make several turns to get there. This was only the beginning of our troubles with getting to the Cracker Barrels. When we finally got to the store they did not have the next book in the series on CD, although they had 3 on tape(which I can't play in my car.) So, we just skipped a book and got another book in the series. We ended up having to stop the cd several times becouse of crazy roads. Washington D.C. was insane. I did get to see the top of the capital though so that was kind of cool. Next we decided that if we were driving through Philedelphia we should have a philly cheese steak sandwich. After enlisting the help of Tom(Bekah's brother)we found a place known for thier sandwiches. It was a nice little pit stop for lunch but now I was ready to get to Nyack. Once we got into New Jersy it started pouring down rain. Not to mention it was rush hour. The combination made a very stressful rest of the trip. As we drove into Nyack a funny thing happend. Sweet Home Alabama started playing on the radio. It is not really a song that I usually turn the radio up to hear it better but it just somehow seemed appropriate at the time. My roommates family was there when we arrived and immediately started helping us unload the car. Thank you God for providing me with a roommate who has a strong Dad and brother who were willing to help after they had already unloaded all of her stuff up two flights of stairs. By this time Bekah and I were exhausted but we had to go to Target to get some essentials for the night. I decided to drive Bekah around Nyack for a little bit before it got dark. Downtown Nyack is so cute we decided that we just had to eat there. From there we went to Target where we had to hurry before they closed. I had to get towels, shampoo, conditioner, and an air mattress for Bekah to sleep on. Now, why am I telling you what I had to get? Well, because there are a couple of funny stories to go along with that. When Bekah went to take a shower, she discovered that in my haste to get out of the store before it closed I picked up 2 conditioners instead of shampoo. Luckily I had a sample of shampoo for us to use for the night. Next, Bekah discovered that the air pump for the air mattress had to charge for 4 hours before it could be used. It was already late and we could not wait on that. I got the bright idea to use a hair dryer. I was pretty proud of myself for thinking of that until we realized that part of the air mattress had melted from the heat. Bekah patched it but still ended up sleeping on the floor before the end of the night.
The next morning we went into the city. It took us a little longer than we anticipated to get there but we still go to see most of the things on Bekah's list. We went to Chinatown and Central Park. We had frozen hot chocolate at Serenipity, and huge sandwiches at Carnegie Deli. We tried to win lottery tickets for Wicked but were unsuccessful. We did have some darn good pizza though. We saw alot but I think we decided that there was alot more that we will do next time.
Well, I guess that was a clasic Marie story but now you know all about our trip to Nyack. I will post again soon to update you about my first week here. 

Happy Happy Birthday!

Today is Hannah and Jenn's Birthday. Unfortunately I didn't get to see Hannah on her birthday but I did get to host party for Jenn. All of the Birmingham friends came over and had dinner. I do believe a good time was had by all.

 
  

Unemployed

As of last Friday at 5:30pm I am officially unemployed. It feels great. It has been a tough month telling all of my kids bye. It has also been tough telling people I work with good-bye. This morning I was lazy for the first part of the day just because I could. After I was lazy I got up and got to work. I made a little progress anyway. I got most of my books packed up and then organized stuff for scrapbooks into nifty little storage containers. I spent most of my afternoon going through old pictures, cards, and letters. I found myself thanking God for my friends. I have to say that I have the best friends a girl could have. Several of the cards made me just crack up laughing.

As I started packing today, I started to get a little nervous about getting everything in my car. I know it is all going to fit but I am just going to have to be creative to get it all in. Anyway, for the next two weeks I will be trying to do some last minute errands and trying to make the rounds to see everybody before I leave. I have a feeling the next two weeks are going to go by very fast.

A month from today....

I will be spending my first night in my apartment in Nyack.

Hey,didn't we skip somebody?

The big day has finally arrived! 

These are just a few of the pictures from the weekend. To see more you can go to my cousin, Maggie's Blog.

Poor Jon...I guess that's the price you pay for being in a wedding.  

My brother is offically the sweetest guy ever. He surprised Lacy with a song he wrote for her.  

The Bride and Groom at thier Luau rehearsal dinner. The night was complete with a hula hoop contest and Hawaiian phrases. I do believe fun was had by all.  

Chris and his boys 

Mr. and Mrs. Chris Miller 

The Walton Cousins 

Mmm...good! 

How cute! 

I can't believe it...my little brother is married! 

I caught the bouquet...again 

After the wedding the kids decided that it would be fun to go swimming. They also thought that I needed to get in as well. What does it say about me when the "little kids" got me in the pool. Aunt Connie and Uncle Eric have eachother to thank for getting in.  

Ahh....it's finally over! 

I need a favor

Please pray for baby Grace. She is a baby of a friend of mine. She had heart surgery this morning and will have to have more in the future. Please pray for her as she is healing from this surgery. Please pray for wisdom for the doctors as they decide the next course of action for little Grace. Please pray for her parents and extended family. Pray for them to be able to rest and for God to give them peace. Thank you for your prayers.

It's Official!

The past few days have been very exciting. I will officially be attending Nyack Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, New York in the fall. I spent the beginning of the week visiting and taking care a few small details. The people are very nice and the town is cute. It is not far outside of NYC but far enough that its not crazy like living in the city. I got to see where I will probobly be living and I met with my advisor and got my schedule figured out. I can't wait to get back up there and get started. I will be getting a Masters in Intercultural Studies from the Alliance Graduate School of Missions. What I love about ATS is that it not only offers a great intellectual experience but there is a large emphasis on spiritual formation. I think it is going to be a perfect fit. Now I just have to get through the summer without going crazy.


A view of the street downtown. Its so cute!


This is a view from one of the buildings on campus. It is a beautiful view of the Hudson River.

Birthday Girls

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Biz! I am not sure if she ever reads my blog but I love her anyway.

Happy Birthday To Jennifer!!!!!

It is almost over but I just wanted to say Happy Happy Birthday to Jennifer.

666

I was just watching the local fox station and I found one of thier stories rather interesting. They declared 6/6/06 a "Bad Birthday." One woman induced her labor so that her baby would not be born on that date. Wow, that is kind of extreme. What did she really think was going to happen? Is the child going to be the spawn of Satan? Oh well...I think is a perfectly great day to be born. My good friend Biz will celebrate her birthday on that day and I think she is just swell! I know this was rather random but just thought I would share with the blog world what is on my mind. Hopefully my next blog will be a little more interesting.

It's About Time...

Well, I think it is about time for an update on the life of Marie. Work is really crazy right now so the last thing I want to do when I come home is think about what to blog about. Last week I had the opportunity to make African food for Vestavia Alliance Church. They are going on a mission trip to Ecuador so they had a "Taste of the Nations" fundraiser. They had food from about 10 different countries. It was a lot of fun tasting everything. Most people were afraid to try mine. The people who did try it liked it though. I even had a couple of people who took a to go box of it. The sad thing was that I had enough left to feed a small village. It is times like this that I feel guilty about how much we have in America. Thanks to Susan and Nanny for helping me prepare the mafie. Susan helped me cut up the meat the night before and Nanny came with some big pots and helped chop the veggies. My cousin Heather came to visit and she had an idea of what the Mafie looked like but I will let you decide for yourself.



Susan and I decided we would suck at being African women.















As always we can have a good time doing anything...even cutting meat.
















Mmm Mmm Good!