
So many of you have commented that you have missed my adventure blogs. Truth be told, so have I! The reality of it is that we were busy working on one grand adventure that was a long time coming.
In 1986, we packed all of our belongings in a U-Haul truck, along with our 6-month old baby and a golden retriever and headed west to the state of Missouri. Darrell had been accepted to AGTS (Assemblies of God Theological Seminary) and would be earning his Masters of Divinity in Pastoral Studies degree. Because his BS was in dairy science, we knew it would take a little longer but we never dreamed it would take 33 years!
We went without having jobs, a place to live, or even a kitchen table as we had sold as much as we could to have enough money to get there. A family from the seminary graciously offered to house us until we could get settled and what a blessing they were! (Thank you Craig and Fay! We have never forgotten or ceased to be thankful for your gracious hospitality!)
I soon came to refer to Missouri as “the state of Misery,” as money was too tight and life was hard but Darrell persevered and in 5 years earned 90 of the 96 credits that he needed. During that time span, we youth pastored at 2 local churches and senior pastored a third, and we moved 4 times in order to be closer to the churches we were serving in. All the while, Darrell not only studied full time, but he worked full time as well.
In 1991, our home church in Pennsylvania invited us to come home and serve with Chi Alpha ministries, the AG’s campus ministry. We jumped at the chance to go home, thinking that Darrell could finish his last two credits by mail. (There was no internet at that time.)
Upon arriving home, he learned that not only was he the campus pastor but was also the CE director of the large church that was paying our salary. The classes got postponed as we got acclimated to a quickly growing campus ministry and the other duties. In 1993, we planted a church with the campus group at the request of the Pastor of the church. Planting a church leaves you neither time or money to spare and again, the classes were postponed. We worked hard and established a growing, thriving church and in 1999, we had a devastating car accident that left 2 of our children brain injured and a third pretty badly beaten up. Life again changed, and the classes were postponed. In the back of Darrell’s mind, he always wanted to finish what God had asked him to start, but life....
In 2019, after a few hard years of medical issues, family emergencies, ministry frustrations, and personal challenges, he resigned the church we had planted and pastored for 26 years. In 2023, he began the process of finishing his degree and discovered that after 10 years, college credits do not count anymore. We were devastated that those 5 years of struggle and near starvation now meant nothing. Still Darrell was determined to do what God had asked of him and started the whole process over. He was accepted at another on-line college to earn a lesser degree at a more reasonable cost.
In the process of finding this out, AGTS inquired as to why we had not finished those last 2 classes. When they learned that we had been busy in ministry and planting a church while persevering through devastating personal challenges, the student advisory council, motivated by the grace of God and in an unprecedented act, decided to let him finish. So our weekend adventures stopped and the studying began.
It was all encompassing, taking months of every evening and all weekend for reading and writing. He also had to tackle the technological challenges as he created videos, participated in ZOOM mtgs., submitting electronically, etc. Finally, in December of 2023, after writing a 65-page paper summarizing his months of study, the coveted degree was “bestowed” as the guys in the flowing gowns and funny hats said at graduation...but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Since neither of us had attended our college graduations in the past, and still marveling at the goodness of God towards us to allow Darrell to finish without extra class requirements or penalties, we decided that he should attend this graduation, with all of its pomp and circumstance, and so our Grand Graduation Adventure began. In the next few posts, I will be sharing photos, commentary, and thoughts of the 9-day trip that culminated in the graduation ceremony. So stay tuned!