Fall at Nashotah House

Fall has officially arrived. Well, it's been here for a while, but the leaves are finally beginning to really change. Today was absolutely beautiful and quite warm actually, so I took a walk and snapped some pictures. You can see them if you click on "Fall 2007" under Our Picture Albums to the right. We are so blessed to live in such a unique and beautiful place.


Lately I have been overwhelmingly thankful to the Lord for taking such good care of us here at Nashotah House. We have a large circle of friends and are beginning to develop that special inner circle of friends that is so important. In particular, I have found a few women with whom I have much in common and can really connect. We have gotten beyond those trivial, "getting to know you" conversations and are really beginning to open up to each other. It is such an answered prayer to be forming friendships like this here. I am also overwhelmingly blessed by a Bible study that I'm in. We're using an Inductive Study of Colossians, by Kay Arthur. I love the way it makes me dig deeply into the Word, searching every nuance and meaning. The Lord is speaking to me so much in this study. It is by far the best Bible time that I've ever experienced.


Rob is still studying for midterms. He has moments of complete clarity and peace and moments of complete confusion and stress. It's hard to watch him go through the stress and to feel helpless, but the peaceful moments always come just when we need them. I've been so proud of his diligence and endurance. His faith is stronger than ever, and I know the Lord is blessing that. He has found some great friends with whom to study and to pray. He's actually going with some of them to a Renewal in Christ Ministries retreat next weekend, which should be awesome. Here's a link to their website: http://www.ricm.org/. He is also going to be helping to organize a chapter of The Order of St. Luke here at Nashotah House! He is so excited!


We're busy but blessed. Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support.

Comic Relief

As I promised, this post was removed for posterity's sake. Feel free to email me if you missed it.

Son of the House

It's official--Rob is now a "Son of the House." He made a Vow of Obligation to Nashotah House during Solemn Eucharist and Matriculation on Oct. 4. To give you an idea of the beauty and richness of the service, I'd like to share with you the exchange between Dean Munday and the matriculating students:

The Dean: You came to us as strangers and entered into our house; you have made your home with us and you have shared our life: Is it your desire to commit yourselves to this life and to join yourselves to us as members of this community?

Respose: It is.

Matriculating Students: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I hereby promise on my conscience and honor to obey during the term of my residence the Statutes and Regulations of Nashotah House; to submit myself respectfully to its authorities, and in general, to conduct myself as becomes a Christian, and if it be the case, a Candidate for Holy Orders.

The Dean: May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen you, that in this as in all things you may do God's will in the service of the kingdom of his Christ.

After making the Vow of Obligation, each matriculating student signed the historic roll book of the seminary.

Matriculation followed a 3-day silent retreat here on campus. Classes were cancelled, and the seminarians attended several seminar lectures by an amazing speaker and man of God, Father David Bauman from Placentia, California. Though I had to work during his daytime lectures, I was able to attend his evening lectures. I'll get back to you another time about him; he was awesome! There were also opportunities for spiritual direction and confession during the silent retreat. It was a really peaceful time on campus. Fr. Bauman's sermon during matriculation was amazing. I really felt the Holy Spirit speaking through him, strengthening the community during that service and really during the whole retreat. A huge community dinner celebration followed matriculation. It was a special evening!

Rob's parents (and their dog, Maggie) just left today after a wonderful weekend visit. We took them to the Madison farmer's market--one of the biggest in the country. We bought cheese, cheese, and more cheese. Yum! We ate German food at the Golden Mast restaurant on Lake Okauchee. They took me shopping. They spoiled us rotten all weekend--it was great! Rob's got a Church History midterm tomorrow, two assignments in other classes, and a Greek quiz on Friday, so needless to say, he's off studying this evening.

Thank you for your prayers--we are so blessed. We miss y'all!

I love my job!

Isn't it great to really enjoy your job? Doesn't it feel wonderful to jump for joy when you're at work? Some of you have been asking about my job and for photos so that you can have a mental picture when you think of me during the day. Here's a great one that really sums up my days here at the Nashotah House Library. I mean really, does it get any better than this?!

And we're off...

We're starting the second full week of school, and we're already full spead ahead. We haven't even been back to the lake since the last post! Rob is busy trying to figure out how to manage such a busy schedule. The Middlers and Seniors have told us that it takes some time to figure out how to make it work for you--maybe even a whole semester. Basically, Rob has to figure out the best time to study in a schedule that looks like this (all required activities):
Morning Prayer and Eucharist/breakfast/classes/lunch/random meetings, choir practice, work scholarship duties, work crew/Evening Prayer.
Besides maybe an hour here or there, he's booked from 7:30-5:30 during the week. He's been trying to decide if it's best for him to study late at night or to get up early in the morning. He's also trying to decide if it's better for him to study in his office in our basement, in our living room, or in his study carrel at the library. On top of that, he's got to discern which of the thousands of pages of reading assignments in his classes are really actually required and which are merely suggested reading. Some professors seem to make it very clear while others seem to let you sweat it out. It's obvious that no functioning human could actually read all of the assignments. He'll get it all figured out in time. We would both appreciate your prayers in this area.

I have been busy at my new job IN THE LIBRARY! Many of you know that the position was my dream job here at Nashotah, and it was such a blessing to get it! I have loved every minute of it since I started a week and a half ago. I am the full-time library assistant. I'll be doing a little bit of everything around the library, which is great because I'll get to learn all of the ins and outs of library work--something that has always intrigued me. My favorite job so far is working on the reclassification project--from the Dewey Decimal System to the Library of Congress System. The library is in the final stages of this project and should be completely reclassified by the end of 2008. I also love working in what I like to call the book hospital, fixing books with fancy glue and tape and other cool book-fixing supplies. It's like arts and crafts, but instead of creating a piece of art, you're saving one. It's very fulfilling work. I'll bring my camera to work this week and post some pics of me in action at the library so that you can get a visual. Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for me about this job. Praise God!

Upper Nashotah Lake

Now that we're all unpacked and relatively settled, we've been doing some exploring in this beautiful place. Nashotah House is located in an area of Wisconsin known as Lake Country. There are small lakes all around, and Nashotah House is situated on one called Upper Nashotah Lake. It's a private lake, meaning there are no public accesses. The seminary has a dock and a little beach. It's walking distance from our apartment, via either a trail through the woods behind our apartment or a stroll through the campus. The lake is spring fed, making the water crystal clear. It's cold, but on a warm day, it's perfectly refreshing. The dogs absolutely love it! I've attached some picture links and some video links on the bar to the right. Check them out! Tonight there is a movie on the lawn for the community. We're watching The Princess Bride. Tomorrow is the first day of school! We'll fill you in on all the details soon. Blessings!

Over the River and Through the...CORN! We're Here!

I'm sitting in our living room in our apartment in Nashotah, Wisconsin. Despite the fact that we've been here for 2 1/2 weeks, it still feels completely and utterly surreal to us. Life 2 1/2 weeks ago seems like a lifetime ago. We are quite happy here, but we are just waiting for normalcy to set in. The move went so well; it really couldn't have gone any better. The drive was really beautiful. I drove our car and followed the Free's car/U-Haul trailer. It was scary watching the trailer swerve when we went through the mountains. I think at one point I prayed out loud for 30 minutes straight. God heard my prayers, and we had absolutely no car/highway mishaps! The longest part of the drive was mostly through corn fields, which I thought were absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful. Yes, I think I was alone on that thought. I was just so struck by the beauty of pure landscape as far as the eye could see. It was not only landscape, though. It was the fruit of someone's labor--miles and miles of it. I think if this whole seminary thing doesn't work out, I want to be a farmer. I wonder what God thinks about that?! We'll see. Anyway, the first picture is of my windshield view during the bulk of the trip. As you can see in the second picture, Hazel was not all that intrigued by the views out of any of the windows. The third picture is another view of the beautiful cornfields. If you look closely you can see the windmills. There were about 20 of them all together in the fields at one point. It was really cool! We arrived at Nashotah House at about 2:00 p.m. on Aug. 15. It was raining when we pulled up. Our first sight was our new neighbors, men, women and children, standing there with umbrellas, ready to help us unload. It still brings tears to my eyes! The rain stopped immediately, and people we had never even met started unloading the truck and the U-Haul trailer. Sallie Free and I just had to stand at our doors and direct traffic as to where everything should go. They had both households, the Free's and ours, unloaded within an hour. It was amazing. I just stood there, all choked up, watching these people carry my stuff into the house. It was a humbling experience to be ministered to in this way. All I could think was, "What can I do to give back? How can I repay them?" Then, someone said to me, "Welcome Home!" I realized that this is my new home and these people are my new family--my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all the body of Christ here. He works through us, and it's not about working or repaying. It's about just letting the power of Christ work in us when it's time. That's what these people were doing. I just needed to relax and accept the love that was being given to me by Christ through these people. It was an amazing blessing. So we're here. We're all unpacked. The quick version is that we're getting to know our brothers and sisters here at Nashotah. There have been lots of picnics and bonfires. Last week was orientation. It was overwhelming. Classes start on Tuesday. Obviously there is a lot more to say, but I've been on the computer way too long on this beautiful day. The dogs are ready to go for a walk to the lake for a swim. I'll post again soon. We love you and miss you all!