2 Quarters Down, 1 To Go...and Scotland in the Fall

A final tea party with Ruthie Stratman.  The Stratmans finished up the quarter here and headed back to Colorado Springs.  We were all very sad to see them go, but also very thankful to have discovered such wonderful new friends for our whole family!

Aunt Crystal came to visit for a week - so much fun!  (This is In N Out Burger at our favorite park)

A St. Patrick's Day celebration and Irish dancing at our wonderful little church - Knox Pres.

Esther and Bella love dancing!  This is Irish dancing, but if you'd like to see Bella dance in the aisles at church, just stop by any Sunday at Knox to see some spinning and arm waving!

Just turned in my last final...what are you going to do?  I'm going to Disneyland!  

Go Orediggers!

Waiting for the World of Color light on water show (it is really amazing)

We had the privilege of getting to spend some time with Daniel Webb while he was out for Spring Break.  The girls are actually getting pretty tall but 6'5" makes just about anyone look short!

We made it!  The last few weeks were intense but not insane, and we have finished quarter #2 of 3.  The quarter went very well.  I will try to get you a 2 sentence summary of what I learned in each class soon.  For now, I want to share a bit of my Colossians final.  With one of the best profs at Fuller, I had the privilege of studying Paul's letter to the church in Colossae (book in the Bible) from the Greek.  Our final exam was to write a paraphrase of the whole book of Colossians from the Greek.  It was a fun, challenging, time-consuming assignment.  I'll include one of my favorite parts from Colossians 3:8-11 (after some amazing talk about how our lives are included in the Rescuer [Christ])-

    Picture yourselves taking off an old, worn-out jacket. The jacket is held together with the threads of an impure heart expressed in shallow anger, self-serving wrath, mean-spiritedness, abusive speech, filthy talk, and lies. All of those horrible, hurtful words that used to come out of your mouths are part of the old person that y’all have taken off. Throw that jacket into the rushing waters of baptism that washed away your old way of living.
    Now, imagine yourselves putting on a beautiful new jacket, the new person, that is made of living threads. The living threads of this jacket are constantly being made anew so that the wearers of the jacket look more and more like the Rescuer every day. In this new life, the old divisions between people are gone! No longer is there Catholic or Protestant, Jew or non-Jew, American or Immigrant, African, Muslim, slave or free, but the Rescuer unites them all and invites all peoples to be united to him.

We are on Spring Break now - one week off.  The girls are super-excited, "Dadda, you don't have to study this week!"  We have gotten off to a great start, and we are looking forward to a trip to Sea World later in the week.

Janelle and "baby brother" are doing great-36+ weeks pregnant now. As always, Janelle's attitude is amazing even as the little guy gets bigger and bigger and pushes her insides around.  He is very active in there - I think he already knows how important it is to get his workouts in!  :-)

In the other big news in the Buckner family, we heard back from the PhD programs we applied to, and we have decided to go to St. Andrews University in Scotland this Fall!  I will be doing a one-year Masters (M. Litt) in Systematic and Historical Theology and then a 3 year PhD.  If you are interested, my probable area of study for the PhD is Trinitarian theology - particularly the role of the person of the Holy Spirit in our corporate and individual union with Christ.  In other words, I will be studying what it means for us to be in real relationship with God in Christ by the Spirit.  Although I had hoped I could maybe skip the one year masters for time and financial reasons, I am really excited about the privilege of learning under some amazing professors for a year (including NT Wright, Alan Torrance, and Trevor Hart). 

Even though we are going down the PhD route, we are still planning on heading into pastoral ministry when it is done.  I'll be ready for ordination this summer, so maybe God will even open up a door to get ordained in Scotland...we'll see!

You may ask, If I'm not planning on being a professor, why do a PhD? Great question!  Mostly because I'm really excited about studying who God is as the Father, Son, and Spirit and because as much as we know how to discern, we feel God is leading us this direction.  The community in our lives has confirmed this desire.  As far as I know, getting a PhD is a way for me to faithfully be myself as who God has made me.  I trust that God will use the learning to make me a better dad, pastor, follower of Jesus.

You know you live in Southern California when you are driving home from Disneyland at 9:30pm and you get stuck in a traffic jam, moving about a mile in an hour and fifteen minutes!  Even with 8-10 lane highways everywhere, there is always traffic!!

Blessings on you in the Rescuer Christ today.