For some orientation, here is a map of St. Louis with our most frequented locations. As you can see, the closed highway (I-64) really sucks for us. It reopens in December, but by then we will have moved closer to the seminary to where we won't need it as badly.
Okay this picture is just to show you how ridiculous the winter was. Lucy may have liked it, but she was the only one. I hate cold and snow and cannot wait to live in a southern climate where I can again wear flip-flops year round as life was meant to be lived.This also points out one daily activity of our life: Taking out the dog in the morning and after we get home every day. Dan usually takes her to the park across the street, but now that it is warm again, I will join with him for a leisurly walk after work.
Sunday: Here is where we have settled on attending church. The Covenant Presbyterian Church has been around for about 100 years or so. It originally met in a building in downtown St. Louis, but sometime in the last 50 years moved out to a suburb-ish kind of area in West County. We have been attending the new members sunday school class and will probably meet with the church elders to be interviewed for membership at the end of May. (This is also where we are employed part-time, see below).
This is actually the only picture I have of us at the seminary. I go to class 3 days a week, Dan goes 4. It is a pretty campus, though the buildings are a little mismatched. We have one class together, Apologetics and Outreach, which is taught by Jerram Barrs. We highly recommend his book, The Heart of Evangelism. He and his family started the L'Abri in England and ran it for many years until he came to teach at Covenant.
Here is my nameplate thing. So official.
My desk at work. I am the front desk person for the church office. Primarily, I answer the phone and direct calls; but I also put together mailings, maintain the church database, and put together the weekly prayer list.
Dan works at the church part-time as well, doing maintenance and grounds. Here he is sad because his ipod broke one day and he couldn't listen to it while he was working. Now he uses mine everyday to listen to sermons or npr podcasts or jammin oldies.
Monday: This is a bad photo of us in line at Chick-fil-a. We come here for lunch many mondays because if you take in a church bulletin you get either your sandwhich or nuggets free with purchase of drink and fries. Cheep and yummy!Tuesday: Class in the morning, work in the afternoon, come home to study/veg.
Wednesday: Dan goes to class and studies, I work all day. In the evening we go to the home of Jon and Laurabeth Medlock, who work as the assistant pastor and school secretary, respectavly with us at the church. We watch LOST and they cook us a delicious meal after their kids have gone to bed. It's very fun.
Thursday: Same as Tuesday, except Dan doesn't work. Lots of time we will go to "Ministry Lunches" at the school after class. There is often free food and a presentation by a speaker on a particular ministry issue or opportunity going on in the Church or Missions or whatever.
Friday: I try not to work this day, but Dan does and goes to class. Then we hang out with friends or whatever.
Saturday: Sometimes we like to go to the Soulard Market, this huge awesome market near the river that is historic and cool. They sell lots of food (pictured here is the meat market) including veggies, fruits, meat, fish, and other specialty items. Its about the size of a football field overall and really cheap and fresh.
Some of the usual suspects if we have friends over to grill or drink or whatever. On the right are Garratt and Sara Lathan who graduated with us from Texas - Garratt was an RUF intern for four years. On the left are two other kids who were interns with me also, Robert and Charissa Stowers. They are supercool. Charissa is who told me about mypoints.com and how to be a chacha guide.
