I Just Slept Twelve Hours!

I don't know why I was so tired yesterday. I didn't even do very much. Classes met, but that's really the only taxing thing that went on yesterday. Speaking of classes, they're both officially behind an entire day right now. According to the class schedule, we should be beginning the topics for July 17th (Exodus in one class and the Abram/Abraham narratives in the other), but according to my lecture notes we're starting the information for July 15th (last half of Genesis in one and Cain/Abel down through Tower of Babel in the other). Oh well. Best laid plans of mice and men, right...?

But I did sleep twelve hours. I didn't have much to do this morning to prepare for the first Koinonia groups meeting. So I set the alarm for 7:30, then got out my stuff to work on a little bit of grading and maybe some writing as well. But then about five minutes into it, I found myself nodding off and decided it wasn't worth it to try and stay awake. I have basically all day today to get that grading done (and they are short papers, so it won't take long). So I'll do it after the Koinonia meeting.

What's the Koinonia meeting? A professor and a few students meet every other Wednesday at the professor's home to discuss issues related to seminary life. I have ten men in my group, so it looks like it'll be a good time. This is part of the "non-formal curriculum," a time to share concerns and pray for one another. I'm not sure how it's all going to work out, but we'll see how it goes. I think this is an important part of the seminary experience. As I recall, this kind of thing was supposed to go on in my seminary days, but fizzled out after only a few meetings. Too bad. I'm not going into the group with a specific agenda in mind; I'm instead planning to let the guys set the agenda. I probably will not report in the blog how it went, because rule #1, from my perspective, is what happens there, stays there.

So after having slept half of a day, I find that I'm still getting physically adjusted to the Philippines, even if the mental and spiritual adjustments SEEM to be going more smoothly. I emphasized the word "seem" in that last sentence because, of course, this time tomorrow I could be in the deep throes of culture shock and be a basket case either mentally or spiritually or, more likely, both. We'll see. I will probably also not blog about culture shock, because a public forum like this probably wouldn't be a good place to work through difficult things like that.

All in all, classes and life are going well. I love teaching even more than I thought I would, and I had an especially good conversation after class with a student yesterday. The students here are eager to learn and ask questions, which makes it so I don't have to talk all the time. I love that. Hmmm...I seem to be fishing for things to say now, so it's best to sign off. I still have two hours before the group meets, so I'll find something else to do. It's not like I have to look very far...