Four for Dallas

When we arrived home last night from our trip to Chicago, Mark and Vanessa greeted us with the good news that Vanessa has been accepted as an incoming student at Dallas Theological Seminary. That means we will have four members of our family moving to Dallas this summer.

Meanwhile Josh and Leah in China had been thinking the same thing about Josh seeking further training. When we visited them in late February, we talked about it at length. The end result was their decision that Josh should apply to attend DTS this fall. He will also enter the four-year Master of Theology program. Leah doesn’t plan to take classes but is looking forward to the seminary experience. Josh was accepted first, then Mark, and Vanessa heard yesterday.

From our standpoint as very happy parents, we are excited and amazed. I can say quite honestly that a year ago, we didn’t see this coming at all. I tried to tell them what to expect but decided against it. “They have no idea what’s about to hit them,” I told Marlene. Not that I think they can’t do it. They are all better prepared in every way than we were thirty-four years ago. We got married in Phoenix on Thursday night, honeymooned as we drove to Dallas, and started seminary the following Tuesday. I don’t recommend that plan. We truly didn’t have a clue. But we made it. And I have always been grateful for the years we spent, the friends we made, the things we learned, and I’m grateful for the Greek and Hebrew and the theology and even all those late-night papers I wrote.

Seminary is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and as someone completely non-objective, I am sitting here smiling this morning. We’ve got four on the road to Dallas. We are excited that our sons and their wives will be trained to serve the Lord at the same seminary where we spent four happy years.