it's official!

i'm a soon-to-be graduate and pastor!

i turned in all my finals (the final final was turned in about half an hour ago), which means that i'm done with coursework and just have to wait for the grades to be posted (grades for 3 of 5 for my current classes are already posted) so that i can get a signed diploma.

next step: set up ordination and start date.
the people at my new parish (tri-county ministry in north dakota) kept asking when i would be started.
i think they were excited or something...
but i had to always respond that i was in the midst of finals and had been focusing on schoolwork and hadn't looked that far in advance, and that i had literally just signed the letter of call that day/the day before and had yet to set up ordination, after which i would pick a start date...
so they just have to wait about for me to get a few things lined up...

i went to synod assembly this past weekend and it was fun to be with my fellow first call candidates (technically i already knew a few of them so only 3 were new to me).
it was nice to put faces to names i had heard and who i will be colleagues with in the near future.

oddly enough, i was sitting and eating pizza on pizza friday (cause luther sem's cafeteria always serves pizza on fridays for lunch) with a few fellow students, when one (beau) pointed out that according to luther, ordination is a moot point since a pastor is a pastor as soon as a congregation calls them...
which kinda freaked me out
i mean, a congregation extended a call so i am already a pastor?
i had not even officially said yes (at that point, even though i knew that i was going to), and i was already a pastor?

the i realized that i didn't care about how nerve-wracking it sounds since i'm excited to be a pastor.

wow.
i apologize for jumping around and not having a clear train of thought.
but my thoughts are jumbled, and i guess my writing reflects that...