What were you doing last year?

I've already told this story before, in a sermon/testimony in front of the student prayer meeting back in August (I think), but it certainly bears repeating. This is a significant day for for me, to which point I shall return in a moment. But first, to quote my seminary president, from a time before this was my seminary and before he was the president:

Dr. Modine,

Greetings from Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. Our school is located near Manila in the Philippines...

We are looking for a teacher in Old Testament...

Would you be interested in applying for this position?

Thus began the whirlwind tour. And this message was dated February 6, 2008.

Yep. One year ago today. Four months and eleven days after that message, I had wheels down in Manila. That was an amazingly fast turnaround by anyone's reckoning, and even though "normal" is merely a setting on a dryer, my situation was not "normal" by any stretch of the imagination.

This email, my response to it, and the machinations that took place to evaluate, appoint, and train me together constituted the fulfillment of a more-than-decade-old dream. Thanks be to God. Amen.