Dear Friends and Family, Community Near and Far,
As I wrap up my first year at seminary, it is time to pause and express my gratitude and to all of you who have been along on this journey so far.
What an amazing year it has been! This year has been a time of opening, changing, growing and becoming more the person God is creating me to be. When asked how it is to be in seminary one of my common responses is: “I love it, it is grueling, it is an incredible privilege.” I continue to feel feel the need to jump up and down with excitement as I take classes on preaching, spirituality and peacemaking, Swedenborgian Bible, personal spiritual practice, and Old Testament. I bask in the honor and gift it is to be pursuing these topics that are energizing and intriguing and are preparing me for the next season of ministry and service.
I am grateful and surprised by the doors that God continues to open: opportunities to preach and lead worship, an incredible fellowship this past summer in Washington D.C., networking connections, meeting mentors and guides, and leading me to a rich and vibrant community to engage in. It is abundantly clear I am in the right place and following God’s call. Many days I find energy and fulfillment. Other days I grapple with exhaustion and resistance. Most days, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is in this and I’m being held and led.
And knowing that I am being held by a large group of people across the globe makes all the difference. I feel incredibly blessed to have each of you on the team and am honored to be in community with you. Your emails, phone calls, prayers, donations, Facebook posts, texts, visits, cards, coaching and conversations are foundational in my ability to continuing following this calling and stepping out into the unknown. I am grateful for the many ways I’ve been lifted up and provided for throughout this past year and I want to thank each one of you for being part of that.
I will continue to walk forward in this journey and I look forward to seeing how the Divine One wants to use me and what comes next. I am blessed by each of your journeys and grateful that we’re all in this life on the planet together.
With deep gratitude,
Anna
P.S. Some of you have asked for specific ways that you can support as I continue in seminary.
Here are a few ideas:
- Send me information and opportunities that cross your eyes that you think might add to my seminary education and ministry training. Workshops, books, opportunities to preach, people to connect with, etc. (anna@woofenden.net)
- Follow my writing and blogging online and comment and repost. It is particularly useful when I get writing published on public sites, other than my personal blog, to have the articles be read and commented on by many readers. This ups the ratings and makes further invitations to write more likely.
- Join in the fun of shopping for course books: http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/28LVZE9E68IKC/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go
- Or find a book on the ever-growing seminary student’s resource wish list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/396B6XF4MJHZV
- Pray for the continued journey, that I will have the strength and humility to continue walking on this path. That God will open the doors and lead the way. That I can be a good vessel for God’s love and light through this work.
- Live your life with gusto and care. It is as a large and varied community, fully showing up the best we can each day that the Divine will move and fill. I’m honored to be walking this path with each one of you.
