…Good old Golden Rule Days!

Life has been very crazy here in the Moore family…but sometimes crazy is good. I have described it to several friends as the “perfect storm” of life coming together all at once…nothing of a tragic nature though, so we can be thankful for that!
One of the exciting things is that Addie returned to school to 2nd grade and Emma went to school for the first time in Kindergarten! It has been a great transition back to school schedule and seeing the excitement of the girls. Addie is well adjusted to a full day of school after making that step last year to 1st grade. Part of the excitement is that Emma gets to ride the bus home with Addie. Also, Emma is taking off in reading skills already.

Isabelle is not without her new things as she is back in pre-school twice a week and now is doing her speech therapy once a week and learning very quickly. She is saying many more words, and beginning to use some without being asked. Someone passed her in church on Sunday and said “Hi Isabelle” and she responded back “Hi” with a little wave! That hasn’t really happened before like that. A big help in our communication with her is that she is using “yes” and “no” very well. Sometimes she may be confused by the question and the default response is “yes”. One day when she wasn’t obeying in something continually, I asked her “do you need to have a spanking?” and she looked at me with bright eyes and said “yes”! I just laughed with her! She says “eease” more (which is Please) and other new words.
Below is a picture of her friend Sawyer taking her on another car date! Last year Sawyer had trouble getting her in the car, this time it appears that he’s having a tough time with the conversation! Click here for her last date last year.

And lastly, I have started another round of classes at Biblical Seminary. This trimester I have decided to try two classes. I am taking Missional Theology on campus and Greek 1 online. I commute once a week to the Philadelphia area and am able to carpool with another student from our area. I chose to do the online greek because I have taken 2 years of greek in my undergraduate work and have a familiarity with the material. Even with that familiarity it is a lot of work!
Despite the craziness and the loads of work, I am really enjoying the challenge of studies at Biblical Seminary. I chose this seminary because of their unique pursuit of training ministry leaders very practically to minister in the culture in which we live. In fact their mission is:

“To prepare missional leaders who incarnate the story of Jesus with humility and authenticity and who communicate the story with fidelity to Scripture, appreciation of the Christian tradition, and sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of postmodern culture.”

The school is taking much criticism these days from some alumni and others that have been afraid of the direction of the emerging church movement that the seminary is involved with. I find it very stimulating to study there even when things are said that I am uncomfortable with, it causes me to think more deeply about what I think and believe and why. The professor of my Missional Theology class, John Franke, has been one of the people that the critics are most critical of…all I know right now is that I have a lot of reading to get done before I see him in class today at 1:30!!! Better GO!