The winter quarter of seminary ended back in the last week of February. I would have loved to have posted more about my winter classes earlier, but with the spring quarter’s large course load (see next blogpost) on top of self-quarantining at home, the last thing I wanted to do with my spare time was stay in my office haha. That being said, I absolutely loved my classes in the winter quarter and all the professors I was honored to learn from. Since I already had a quarter of seminary under my belt, I found it easier to find the balance between school, homework, socializing, and home life.

In the Winter I took 18 credit hours and began my lifelong task of writing the best sermons I can. The classes I took were:

• Catechism Recitation
• Church History II
• Lutheran Confessions I
• Field Education
• Homiletics I
• Confessing Christ in Today’s World
• Gospels II
• New Testament Greek Readings

Non-Credit Classes

Catechism Recitation is a pre-vicarage assignment for all seminarians where we recite a chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism from memory. Since we will be teaching the catechism in each of our calls, the seminary finds it appropriate that we are able to recite the Catechism in its entirety before going on vicarage. In the Winter I recited each article of the Creed and their meanings.

Field Education was taught by Rev. John T. Pless and met every Monday at 11:00AM. In this class we discuss our field work congregations and observations that we have as we prepare for our calls. In this class we looked at the life of Bo Giertz. Bo was a Swedish Lutheran Bishop who stood up for Confessional Lutheranism in Sweden during the 20th century. There is a lot to be learned from his writings and the challenges he faced as a bishop in Sweden. In class we read:

• Bo Giertz, The Hammer of God, trans. Clifford Ansgar Nelson and Hans Andrae, revised ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1960).
• C.F.W. Walther, God’s No and God’s Yes: The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel, cond. Walther C. Pieper (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1973).
• John T. Pless, Handling the Word of Truth: Law and Gospel in the Church Today, revised ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2015).

Classes taken for Credit

Church History II was taught by Rev. Dr. Cameron A. MacKenzie and met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In this class we covered the history of the Western Church from the eve of the Reformation to the publishing of the Book of Concord in 1580. Dr. Mackenzie is a wonderful professor who also taught my father during his seminary days and really made the Reformation and its stories come to life. I really enjoyed this class and am looking forward to having Dr. Mackenzie next year for a class on John Calvin. In this class we read:

• Jame Kittelson, Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and his Career (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016).
• Martin Luther, Three Treatises: From the American Edition of Luther’s Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978).
• St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, trans. Anthony Mottola (New York: Image Books, 1964).
• Alister McGrath, Reformation Thought: An Introduction, forth ed. (: Malden/Oxford: Wiley/Blackwell, 2012).
• Timothy George, Theology of the Reformers, revised ed. (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2013).
• Lewis W. Spitz, The Renaissance and Reformation Movements, vol. 2: The Reformation (Concordia Publishing House, 2006).
• Bernhard Lohse, Martin Luther’s Theology: Its Historical and Systematic Development (Augsburg Fortress, 2011).

Lutheran Confessions I was taught by Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer and met every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In this class we went over the Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession from the Book of Concord. Dr. Scaer had us read the Augsburg Confession and its Apology in English for homework, but in class we used the Latin and the German texts for his lectures on the Augsburg Confession. This class was great for diving deeper into the Lutheran Confessions and seeing how they not only applied to the Lutherans back in the 16th century, but how they still remain relevant nearly 500 years later. In this class we read:

• Charles Arand, Robert Kolb, and Timothy Wengert, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).
• Robert Kolb and James Nestingen, Sourcecs and Contexts of the Book of Concord (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
• David P. Scaer, Getting into the Story of Concord (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977).
• Holsten Fagerberg, A New Look at the Lutheran Confessions (1529-1539) (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1972).
• Leif Grane, The Augsburg Confession: A Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1987).

Homiletics I was taught by Rev. Dr. Carl C. Fickenscher and Rev. Dr. Don C. Wiley and met every Tuesday and Thursday. In this class I learned how to prepare and write sermons, how to organize sermons in your personal library, and C.F.W. Walther’s The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel in detail. This was a wonderful and very engaging class with a very large homework load. With daily quizzes and something to turn in almost every day, this class was a lot of work, but was very rewarding as it was my first class on preparing, writing, and delivering sermons. In this class we read:

• Gerhard Aho, Sermon Theory I Notes (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1980).
• Concordia Pulpit Resources (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House).
• Donald L. Deffner, Compassionate Preaching: A Primer/Primer in Homiletics (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1991).
• C.F.W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel, trans. W.H.T. Dau (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1986).
• Richard R. Caemmerer, Preaching for the Church (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959).

At the end of the second quarter (right before the pandemic hit), Elizabeth and I went down to Martinsville and I was able to preach my first sermon at my home church, Prince of Peace. Here is a link to the sermon: http://www.popmartinsville.org/audioplayer/audioplayer.html (or try http://www.popmartinsville.org/resources/sermons.html and click the link towards the bottom to open the audio player). The sermon is from March 15 and has my name by the title. Since it was my first sermon not in class, it went a little long–sorry!

Confessing Christ in Today’s World was taught by Rev. Dr. Klaus Detlev Schulz and met every Tuesday and Thursday. In this class we learned about the history of missions in the Lutheran Church and in many American Evanglical Churches. This class was one of the most interesting classes I have taken at the seminary and I loved it. In this class we had a lot of reading, reflection papers to turn in every week, a large project, and a presentation based on a mission strategy we were assigned to research. While this class was very demanding, I learned a lot and really connected with this professor as we studied missions and discussed how the Church ought to do mission work while we are in the pastoral ministry. In this class we read:

• Klaus Detlev Schulz, Mission from the Cross: The Lutheran Theology of Mission (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009).
• Ludwig Adolph Petri, Mission and the Church: A Letter to a Friend/ Die Mission und die Kirche: Schreiben an einen Freund (orig. published in Hannover, 1841), trans. David Buchs (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 2012).
• Volker Stolle, The Church comes from All Nations: Luther Texts on Mission, trans. Klaus Detlev Schulz (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003).
• Wilhelm Loehe, Three Books About the Church, trans. James Schaaf (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1969).
• David J. Valleskey, We Believe-Therefore We Speak: The Theology and Practice of Evangelism (Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1997).
• E.R. Baierlein, In the Wilderness with the Red Indians: German Missionary to the Michigan Indians, 1847-1853, trans. Anita Z. Boldt (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996).

Gospels II was taught by Rev. Dr. Arthur A. Just and Rev. Dr. Peter J. Scaer and met on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In this class we covered the Gospels of Luke and Mark in the original Greek text. While it is impossible to cover every detail of both gospels in this class, we worked through distinct Lukan and Markan themes and stories which are invaluable for our ministries. It is an absolute blessing to have Just and Scaer walk us through the Greek texts of Luke and Mark and have them really open us up to the beautiful messages God has given us in these two gospels. I really loved this class and wrote two large exegetical papers that I am very proud of. In this class we read:

• Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the Hew Testament: An Interpretation, third ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010).
• Arthur A. Just, Luke 1:1-9:50, in the Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1996).
• Arthur A. Just, Luke 9:51-24:53, in the Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997).
• Arthur A. Just ed., Luke, vol. 3 in Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures (Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003).
• James W. Voelz, Mark 1:1-8:26, in the Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2013).
• James W. Voelz and Christopher W. Mitchell, Mark 8:27-16:20, in the Concordia Commentary Series (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2019).

New Testament Greek Readings was taught by Rev. Dr. Roland Zieger and met every Friday. In this class we covered the upcoming Gospel reading for each week in the original Greek text. This class was great as it gave me many things to think about while writing sermons and preparing to use these texts to comfort those who need to hear them when I am a pastor. Dr. Ziegler is a joy to learn from and a great scholar who really makes you thinking about the text as you go over it in the original Greek text.

A Final Word on the Winter Quarter

The Winter Quarter was much more demanding than the Fall Quarter, but I learned so many amazing and interesting things about God’s Word and His Church that it only made me more excited about the pastoral ministry. This is also a beloved quarter as we were still able to have face-to-face classes, enjoy social events, and were able to travel to our sister seminary in St. Louis where many of my friends from Concordia Chicago are studying to be pastors as well. I am so thankful for my professors and all that I learned the winter quarter and I pray that I will be able to see them again in the classroom soon.

It’s been a while since we updated everyone on our lives! We apologize for that, but are ready to start typing away!

Life Outside of School

Since we last wrote in November, quite a few things have happened! We were able to go to Chicago over Thanksgiving to be with Elizabeth’s family. It was good to see them and eat way too much delicious food. We were also able to see extended family and friends, catch up with some of Elizabeth’s friends, and help set up the Christmas trees at Elizabeth’s home church.

On December 8, we decided to drive over to Illinois to do an early Christmas with Benjamin’s dad’s family. On the way, while driving along a fairly major road, we were hit by a car who didn’t see us while he tried to cross the road. Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Illinois. We headed to the hospital to get checked out and Benjamin’s family detoured to meet us at the hospital and help get us back to Fort Wayne. Thank God that there were no major injuries–only some bruises and soreness which subsided after a few weeks. After about a week in a rental car, we purchased a Nissan Sentra through Enterprise on our way down to Martinsville for Christmas. Unfortunately, that was not the end of our troubles. As we write this, we’re still dealing with insurance which has been a major pain. We’re hoping to get it resolved quickly so that we can afford these car payments!

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We spent the few days before Christmas in Martinsville to celebrate Christmas with Benjamin’s family. We also got to celebrate the baptism of our adorable niece and we’re so blessed to be her sponsors. Benjamin was able to help with the baptism, which was extra special. While in Martinsville, we opened gifts, did the saran wrap ball (you break a sweat in this family), and went to the Indianapolis Zoo to see the lights. It was a joy to spend time with family!

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We then headed to Chicago to spend Christmas and the following week with Elizabeth’s family. We went to church at her home congregation (St. John, Forest Park) on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with Grandma. A few days later, Elizabeth’s brother and his wife got into town and the six of us did family Christmas (which included axe throwing–so much fun!). The next day, we celebrated with Elizabeth’s dad’s side of the family. A lot of action packed into one week!

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We headed back to Fort Wayne for New Year’s and a few days of relaxation before Elizabeth started work and Benjamin resumed second quarter classes (which were on a 3-week hiatus for Christmas). Since then, we’ve been hanging around Fort Wayne, touring DeBrand chocolate factory (so many samples–highly recommend!) and making lots of yummy food (lasagna, sushi, posole, stuffed manicotti, etc). Other highlights include Elizabeth’s trip up to Michigan to visit college friends while Benjamin was on Kantorei tour, going down to St. Louis to visit friends and watch the two seminaries face off in basketball (spoiler: it didn’t end well for Fort Wayne), going to see Fiddler on the Roof, and attending the Gatsby Gala at the seminary! It’s been a good start to 2020 and we can’t wait to see what else is in store this year!

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Academic Life at the Seminary

As the second quarter is coming to an end, Benjamin has been taking a full course load. The hardest parts of the quarter have been learning to write sermons and the higher reading demand than the first quarter. Benjamin also lead chapel on February 10th which you can go and watch on the seminary’s webpage or Facebook page. He was nervous being in front of some 200 people, but thought it went well overall. We have also been solidifying some of the friendships that we made first quarter and are excited see how the Lord uses all of us to complete His mission.

Prayer Requests

• Thanksgiving for safety during our car accident
• For a quick resolution to the insurance hassle
• Thanksgiving for good travels over the past few months and the opportunities to see family and friends
• For the continued growth and development of lifelong friendships
• For a successful and stress-free end to the second quarter for Benjamin

The first of my (Benjamin’s) 9 quarters at Seminary has come to an end. Each quarter is ten weeks long with a two week break between each quarter. This quarter my class load was 16 credits, along with Bibliography & Technology, Catechism Recitation, and Field Education on top of that. My classes were as follows:

• Old Testament Hebrew Readings
• Church History I
• Liturgics I
• Dogmatics I
• Gospels I
• New Testament Greek Readings

How you do in each class is based on how much of the reading you are able to complete, how much time you dedicate to your papers/exams, and how well you execute assignments according to the preferences of each professor. Now I will go into each class in more depth for my personal records and so that everyone can know what I am learning here at Concordia Theological Seminary.

Non- Credit Classes

This last quarter I took 3 non-credit classes. Each one, while not a quarter-long class, is required to become integrated on campus and prepare for vicarage (the internship I will take during my third year).

Biblography & Technology was a three week night class taught by Dr. Roethemeyer and taught us how to use Kroemer Library (the seminary library, which is also the largest Lutheran library in the world).

Catechism Recitation is a Seminary requirement to ensure that every student learns the catechism by heart (we aren’t allowed to say memorize haha) before vicarage. Prior to vicarage, there are 6 quarters and each quarter you have to recite a different part of the catechism. This quarter all the first years did the Ten Commandments.

Field Education met every Monday at 11:00 and was taught by Dr. John Pless. In this class we read:

• Oswald Bayer, Theology The Lutheran Way, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2017)
• John T. Pless, Praying Luther’s Small Catechism. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2016.
• Helmut Thielicke, A Little Exercise for Young Theologians. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1959.
• Ross Edward Johnson and John T. Pless ed. The Mercy of God in the Cross of Christ: Essays on Mercy in Honor of Glenn Merritt. St. Louis, MO: The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 2016.
• Ross Edward Johnson ed. Mercy in Action: Essays on Mercy, Human Care and Disaster Response. St. Louis, MO: The Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod, 2015.

During your first two years of Seminary, you are assigned to a local Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation where you work in various capacities as a field worker. Elizabeth and I are blessed to be serving at New Hope Lutheran Church and Preschool in Ossian, IN. The pastor is Rev. Daniel Burfiend and it takes us roughly 30-40 minutes to get there from our home. During the first quarter I only observed Sunday mornings and assisted in Bible class, worship, and confirmation class on Wednesday nights. Following the completion of the quarter, I currently teach the Wednesday youth class in the evenings, sit in on Catechism class (also on Wednesday night), and participate in the Divine Service on Sunday by doing the Bible readings and/or the prayers of the church. All of this work is split between myself and a second year seminary student who is also at New Hope for his field education.

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Elizabeth and I definitely love New Hope Lutheran Church and are thankful we have been placed at such a wonderful congregation. We are excited to see how we grow at New Hope and we are so thankful for all of their generosity and support for us.

Classes Taken for Credit

Old Testament Hebrew Readings was taught by Dr. Walter A. Maier III (WAM III) and met every Monday morning. In this class we read through the entire book of Malachi in Hebrew. Dr. Maier is an excellent Hebrew scholar who not only sharpened our Hebrew skills, but offered great insight into God’s word given to us through the prophet Malachi. I have to give a big thanks to Rev. Jim Oester from Accident, MD who graciously gifted me with a four volume Hebrew aid titled Analytical Key to the Old Testament by Dr. John Owens. Without this resource, this class would have been much more difficult than it was.

Church History I was taught by Dr. James Bushur and met three times a week. In this class we covered primary Early Church writings, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, and certain Early Church Fathers all up to the end of the 8th century. Dr. Bushur is a fantastic lecturer whose class I usually left with over four pages of notes every time. We also read through many primary Early Church texts in the original Greek which really challenged, but also sharpened, my Greek skills. In this class we read:

• Leo Donald Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology. Collegeville MN: The Liturgical Press, 1983.
• Williston Walker, Richard A. Norris, David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy, A History of the Christian Church 4th ed. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985.
• Justo L. Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1970.
• Justo L. Gonzalez, A History of Christian Thought: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1971.

Liturgics I was taught by Dr. Paul Grime and met three times a week. In this class we learned the history of the Divine Service and why we have the hymnal that we have today. This class covered all of the major ancient liturgies and rites of the church throughout the ages, what liturgies and rites were used by Martin Luther and the Reformers, the liturgies and rites used by North American Lutherans, and an in-depth look at the Lutheran Service Book; specificaly how it was compiled, and how one is to use all of its resources. In this class we read:

• James F. White, A Brief History of Christian Worship. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993.
• Arthur A. Just Jr., Heaven on Earth: The Gifts of Christ in the Divine Service. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2008.
• The Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Lutheran Service Book. St. Louis,MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006.

Gospels I was taught by Dr. Charles Gieschen, Dr. David Scaer, and Dr. Peter Scaer. This class met twice a week (once as a large lecture taught by both Dr. Charles Geischen and Dr. David Scaer and another day as a small exegetical group taught by Dr. Peter Scaer). In this class we went through the Gospel of Matthew, key Matthean themes, and a lot of leading scholarship on the Gospel of Matthew (some of which the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod agrees with and disagrees with). This was a wonderful class that really challenged me with two large exegetical papers, a lot of difficult Greek, and a large amount of reading. In this class we read:

• Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Concordia Commentary: Matthew 1:1-11:1. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006.
• Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Concordia Commentary: Matthew 11:2-20:34. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2010.
• Jeffrey A. Gibbs, Concordia Commentary: Matthew 21:1-28:20. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2019.
• David P. Scaer, Discourses in Matthew: Jesus Teaches the Church. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
• Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: Third Edition. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010. Note: This is a book we read to expose us to how many other protestant church bodies read the New Testament. This book does not express the views held by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod of Concordia Theological Seminary.

Dogmatics I was taught by Dr. David Scaer and met twice a week. In this class we covered topics such as, What is theology?, Theology as a Christological Discipline, The Trinity, Law and Gospel, Creation/ Anthropology/ Original and Actual Sin, Doctrine and Practice, and Sundry Items. This was one of my favorite classes this quarter because of the interesting topics we covered, the various amounts of articles and topics we read about, and the entertaining teaching style of Dr. David Scaer. In this class we read:

• Franz Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume 1. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1950.
• Franz Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Index. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1950.
• David P. Scaer, A Latin Ecclesiastical Glossary for Francis Pieper’s Christian Dogmatics
• David P. Scaer, Discourses in Matthew: Jesus Teaches the Church. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004.
• David P. Scaer, Law and Gospel and the Means of Grace. Fort Wayne, IN: The Luther Academy, 2008.
• David P. Scaer, The Apostolic Scriptures. Fort Wayne, IN: Concordia Theological Seminary Press, 1979.

New Testament Greek Readings was taught by Dr. Walter A. Maier III (WAM III) and met every Friday. This small group met every week and went over the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday (via the three year lectionary) in Greek. This was an in-depth exegetical task that was accompanied by a worksheet that would connect the weekly text to the other Gospels, the Lutheran Confessions, and to the world today.

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This Quarter Overall

Now that the first Quarter of Seminary is finished, I can say that it was nothing like I expected. Seminary life has exceeded all of my expectations and is also much more demanding than I could have ever imagined. From the time I arrive on campus in the morning until the time I leave, each day is filled with humor, reading, worship, reading, classes, reading, and more reading. I have done exceedingly well in all of my classes and am truly loving the other guys on campus and the community here. Elizabeth and I have made some wonderful friends and relationships here that we know will last us a lifetime. We daily miss our home congregations, families, and best friends we met in Chicago, Martinsville and Grand Rapids, but are always looking forward to future reunions with all of them! All in all, Seminary has been far better than I could have expected and everyone’s support and prayers are every present in our lives here in Fort Wayne.

Miscellaneous Items

Now that Benjamin has explained all of his classes and seminary life, I (Elizabeth) get to talk about the other things we do besides school! I’m still loving my job as an occupational therapist with East Allen County Schools. All of my kiddos are adorable and my co-workers are lovely. One of the best parts of working in the schools is that I get breaks! We’re very much looking forward to being able to travel for Thanksgiving (to Chicago) and Christmas (to Martinsville and Chicago).

We’ve had several visitors over the past few months. Elizabeth’s parents came to visit at the beginning of September, and assorted members of Benjamin’s family have visited at various times in October and November. It’s been a treat to see so many of them! One of the highlights was getting to play with our adorable nephews at the seminary’s playground.

Another highlight was the chance to spend a weekend in northern Michigan. Elizabeth grew up going to Camp Arcadia in Arcadia, MI, right on the shoes of Lake Michigan with her family. It’s been a family favorite for the Walz clan, with several members of the family and extended family working on summer staff over the years. Every fall, camp lovers and volunteers flock to camp to help close up for the winter. We decided to participate in this tradition again this year. During the last weekend of October, we gathered with Elizabeth’s parents and her brother Michael and his wife Kelsey in Arcadia and enjoyed a weekend of manual labor, good food, tasty beer, and beautiful scenery. It was such a blessing to be able to get away for a few weekends and spend some time at the best place in earth with some of our favorite people.

We continue to love exploring Fort Wayne. We’ve found tons of delicious restaurants and several adorable coffee shops. We’re doing our best to treasure our time in northeast Indiana, since we don’t know where we’ll be living either for vicarage or after our call. We’re so blessed to be in such a wonderful city, and also to be so near to family. Life in Fort Wayne is off to a good start!

Prayer Requests

• Thanksgiving for a successful and educational first quarter for Benjamin
• Thanksgiving for a continued enjoyable job for Elizabeth
• For safe travels during the holidays
• For the continued maintenance of relationships/friendships despite distance and busy lives
• Thanksgiving for a wonderful (almost) first 6 months of marriage
• For another educational quarter for Benjamin starting December 2

The Move to Fort Wayne

Let’s start at the beginning. After we got married at the beginning of June, Benjamin moved into Elizabeth’s apartment in Portage (northwest Indiana). We knew we would be moving to Fort Wayne at some point, but we weren’t sure of the exact date. Elizabeth was looking for occupational therapy (OT) jobs in Fort Wayne, mainly in the school districts so that our schedules would line up (Christmas breaks and summer breaks are a blessing). Towards the end of July (as in, the final week of July), she finally had a promising lead–that would start August 8th. We also found out that same week that our duplex in Fort Wayne would be available starting August 1st. After lots of discussion and prayer and debating, we decided to take a leap of faith and move to Fort Wayne before Elizabeth officially secured this position. We decided this on Saturday. On Monday and Tuesday, we packed up our apartment (with a great deal of help from our amazing parents–thanks again!). On Wednesday, we drove to Fort Wayne after Elizabeth finished work. On Thursday, we signed our lease and moved into our duplex. On Friday, Elizabeth had another interview with the East Allen County Schools and was offered the job. We’re still amazed by how quickly and smoothly everything fell into place. God has certainly been good to us.

After moving to Fort Wayne, it was a little crazy and we felt like we were gone practically every weekend! We did have some time to explore the city and we’re looking forward to doing so more in the future!

Starting Seminary

After being in Fort Wayne for about a month, it was finally time for Benjamin to start seminary! Classes started on September 9th. Benjamin is taking Dogmatics, Liturgics, Hebrew, Greek, Church History, The Gospel of Matthew, and Field Education (Elizabeth thinks this sounds exhausting and is glad she’s done with having to do homework). It’s a lot of reading and writing papers and spending time in the library, but Benjamin is getting the hang of things and is really enjoying seminary thus far. As part of his Field Education class, he’s been assigned to a church (New Hope in Ossian, about 40 minutes south of our home) where he’ll learn from the pastor there and participate in leading the services and Bible studies over the next two years to help prepare him for vicarage and being a real-life pastor. Benjamin is also in Kantorei, one of the auditioned choirs at the seminary. He’ll be doing two tours this year, as well as participating in services and concerts on campus. Benjamin is definitely keeping busy, but it’s such as rewarding experience–and Elizabeth gets to hear all about it over dinner (when we have time to sit down together)!

“Harder than expected, but also better than I could have ever imagined. Just like marriage!” -Benjamin about seminary (and also apparently marriage)

One of the challenging things about seminary is being several hours from both family and friends (especially since the other guys in Benjamin’s class from Concordia who went to seminary all went to the seminary in St. Louis). However, we’ve been able to make several trips to see family in Martinsville (Benjamin) and Chicagoland (Elizabeth), and are working to plan trips to see friends over the coming months. However, this challenge has also been a blessing as we’ve been basically forced to make friends with people in Fort Wayne. Elizabeth’s co-workers are all wonderful and she absolutely loves her job and spending time with co-workers and the kiddos she sees every day. Benjamin has gotten close with some of the guys in his class, and we look forward to getting to know them and their respective wives better over the next few years.

Overall, the beginning of this experience has been smoother and more rewarding than either of us were prepared for or dreaming of. As we settle into life in Fort Wayne (and into marriage and into seminary life and into work life), we’re constantly reminded of the many people who love us and the many blessings we experience on a daily basis. God is so so good to us!

Prayer Requests

• For a smooth second half of the first quarter for Benjamin–for continued learning, continued adjustment to the academic rigors of seminary studies, and continued growth in faith
• For Elizabeth’s job–for continued comfort with being a school-based OT, for all of the kiddos she works with and their growth as students and children, and for continued good relationships with co-workers
• For our fieldwork church New Hope–that we would learn from them and be a blessing there, that they would continue to thrive in their ministry, and that God’s Word would continue to be preached to their community
• For both of our siblings who recently got married (Benjamin’s sister Bethany married Andrew, and Elizabeth’s brother Michael married Kelsey)–for growth as couples, for patience with each other as newlyweds getting accustomed to living with another person, and for God-pleasing marriages
• For Benjamin and Elizabeth as a couple–for continued blessing on our marriage, for intentionally setting aside time every week to invest in our relationship, and for building each other up continually