30 Days of Thanksgiving, Day 17: Friends from Palmer Seminary

It seems like every 10-15 years I've gone back to school for additional education and training. In the early '80s, it was PCB. In the mid-'90s, it was CBSE. And in the late 2000s, it was Palmer Seminary. At this pace, sometime around 2018 I'll be back in school again. Hopefully, though, at that point it will be as a professor!

In late 2007 I entered the Doctor of Ministry in Marriage and Family at Palmer Seminary, the seminary of Eastern University outside of Philadelphia (somewhat odd that ALL of my post-high school education has happened within 25 or so miles of Philadelphia, when I have no other attachment to that city!) I entered with a cohort of 24 students, about half of whom were/are pastors, and the other half counselors. We stayed together for the entire program, losing one student and gaining two along the way.

I entered the course with the secondary goal of becoming "class clown." Instead, I became "class geek." But that's beside the point. This group of 2 dozen students was the most diverse group of people I have ever been among. We came from a variety of countries, cultures, church traditions. We were different in just about every way that any group of people can be different. More than 35 years separated the youngest students from the most seasoned veterans of life. One of my first thoughts was "will I fit in here?" Turns out that I was just as "different" as everyone else, so all of us "different" people soon enough got ourselves sorted out. For the next three years, until our graduation in May 2010, we gathered on three occasions, for three week sessions aptly named "Intensives", at the National Christian Conference Center (NC3) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania--an idyllic setting for just about any activity!

During those intensives, the experience was exactly that. The friendship dynamics, multiplied by the intimacy of the learning process and the material and techniques being assimilated, made for faster bonding than Epoxy.

So, all of that said, I am thankful to God for the people who shared this experience with me--perhaps the last such academic exercise for me...but who knows what surprises God may still have in store for me?