Every month I say the same thing – it can’t really be the end
of March already! I guess that busy days make the time pass quickly! March,
usually a long month, was thankfully relaxing for the both of us, as Nick had a
week of his spring break during March, and I had my spring break several weeks
later.
Nick is now three weeks in to his last quarter of the school
year! He is enjoying his classes so far, especially Homiletics, in which he is
learning how to craft a sermon and how to preach! He is looking forward to
beginning preaching in church this summer. This quarter, for his cross-cultural
module, he is spending time with Congregration Chai v’Shalom, a congregation
focused specifically on ministry to the Jewish people. He gets to attend
worship services there and talk with the members of the congregation, and learn
about ministry to the Jews. Today he also got to experience a full Sader meal.
This is the meal that is done in remembrance of the Passover, found in Exodus
12. It is really powerful for him to be able to experience this ministry,
especially in this time of Holy Week.
I have enjoyed March because of the beautiful weather that we
have had! Although it certainly fluctuates (we even got snow Friday morning!), spring
has definitely arrived, and many of the days have been sunny and warm. Being on
spring break for part of that, I actually got to enjoy the beautiful weather!
We spent several hours one Sunday afternoon in the park with friends, I took
one day of my break to meet Nick for a picnic lunch in the middle of his school
day, and I have started taking my students outside to read and do nature walks whenever
we have a nice day. I think we both weathered our first real winter pretty
well, but I will say that I have definitely enjoyed the warmer weather, and not
having to scrape ice from the car in the mornings or wear multiple jackets to
stay warm!
At the end of my spring break, Nick and I had a great
opportunity to attend a two-day prayer retreat put on by Grace Place, an
organization focused on the wellness of church workers in the Lutheran church.
We had the opportunity to learn about various strategies and resources to help us
maintain a healthy personal spiritual life, which is so extremely important, especially
for Nick, as he is going into a profession in which he is going to be caring
for others’ spiritual needs. We spent time in prayer, reading Scriptures, singing
hymns, and meditating on the Word. It was a refreshing and educational
experience, and we both really appreciated being able to attend that retreat. This
is just one of the wonderful things about being here at the seminary, where
they constantly encourage us and help to grow us and prepare us for the
ministry!
In between the long work days, the homework, lesson planning
and preparation, and chores, we somehow still manage to find time for some fun.
Early in the month, we attended Trivia Night at church. Now, apparently, this
is a cultural thing that almost much every church or school in the St. Louis
area does. Being from California, we didn’t know how it worked. We were given
free tickets (another benefit of being in seminary), and so we just planned to
show up that evening. It turns out that this is a huge deal, and there are even
groups that go around to every trivia night offered and just blow every other
team out of the water. The norm is to have a team and table decorations and
themed food ready to go. We just showed up, and sat at the table with the two
other couples without a team. Our table was pretty sad-looking, completely empty
of any themed food or decorations, but we actually did pretty well as far as
the trivia went! But we will know better for next year. We also attended an event on the seminary
campus this weekend known as the SWA (Seminary Women’s Association) Ball. Our
group of friends decided it would be an inexpensive way to get a fun date night
out all together. So we all dressed up and ventured out on a Friday night (not
an easy endeavor for a teacher, I’ll have you know) to eat and dance. We all
had a lot of fun eating, talking, and dancing, and then we went over to our
friends’ apartment to watch a movie, where, in true Mikaela fashion, I fell
asleep on the couch! (That’s more like a normal Friday night for a teacher).
Another adventure that we took on this month was a fast from
all sweets and desserts. We didn’t do it for Lent, mostly just to try to be
healthy (it seemed like a good month with no holidays that would mess it up!). We
spent two weeks with limited desserts, and then two weeks with no desserts at
all. Although we didn’t do it to lose a certain number of pounds or anything
like that, we did learn several important lessons from this dessert fast.
First, it opened my eyes to how many desserts and sweets we are offered in a
day. Even though we had hidden away all the candy in our apartment and had no
fresh baked goods around either, dessert options were available to us – for free!
- at least five out of seven days of each week. Between birthday cupcakes in my
classroom, huge boxes of chocolate and baked goods that well-meaning
congregation members bring the teachers, desserts provided at Lenten suppers, women’s
classes at seminary, and the prayer retreat, donuts at church on Sunday
morning, and cookies and ice cream available when spending time with friends,
we had to say no to desserts more than I expected to have to, even without seeking
anything out. The second lesson I learned is that I really missed baking.
Baking is one of the things that I enjoy on the weekends to relax and spend
time away from work, and I love finding a random dessert on Pinterest and
trying it out, and bringing it to our game nights with our friends to share. I
wasn’t able to do that in the last month, so doing that yesterday for the first
time in a long while was really fun! We also discovered that we are normally
the dessert people when we hang out with friends, and we were at a loss of what
to bring to game nights and parties when I wasn’t making desserts! Lastly, we
learned that we (well, mainly Nick) drink a LOT less milk when we don’t have
desserts in the apartment! For the first time since being married, I didn’t
have to buy milk this week when I went grocery shopping, because we still had a
full gallon in the fridge! Overall, it was a great learning experience, and I
think it will help us to make healthier choices in the future, but after
writing this, I am going to go dish myself up a nice piece of apple cake.
We want to thank everyone for the amazing support for our
time so far in seminary! For those of you supporting us in prayer, we want to
let you know that God has answered in amazing ways, and He has blessed us
greatly. For those of you who have financially supported us, you are a major
part of God’s blessings in our life. Already, the first year of seminary has
been completely paid for, and we have not had to take out any loans. We are now
beginning to save for next year, hoping to keep up this streak of not accruing
more debt! We really appreciate all that you have done for us.
We wish you the best during this celebration of Christ’s
passion and resurrection and we celebrate with you the resurrection of life
that He offers us through that.
In the name of Christ our Savior,
Nick and Mikaela Duerr
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| Enjoying the warm spring weather! |
