Blog #1

Lets start at the very beginning...

We first of all want to apologize for the cheesy title of the blog...however, we just couldn't resist.
Second, we want to share how we came upon this trip and why we are going. Adam and I agreed that I would get my graduate degree first since I have known since I was little that I wanted to teach art. During the second semester of my graduate degree Adam started looking at schools and thinking about what he would like to specialize in. God revealed to both of us at the same time (but in different ways) that he would be pursuing a career in biblical archeaology.
Immediately Adam was drawn to Wheaton, a private college in Chicago, that offered a Masters Degree in his field. We both agreed that he should steer clear of a seminary degree so that he could go into the secular job force. The plan was that he would start Wheaton right after I finished and we would move to Israel for 6 months for his first semester there. Of course after we got everything set up for that, we began to feel God tug us in a different direction. Actually, I think that is when we started listening to God instead of telling Him what we were going to do.
One of our friends from Johnson City, Morgan, applied to another seminary and therefore Adam became interested. We also contacted an old friend from Auburn, Mark, who attends Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth and found out that they too offer a Masters in Biblical Archeaology. Adam and I started praying over which school to go to and decided that we would wait to make any other plans until those prayers were answered. I immediately felt drawn to Southwestern--no offense but I have never seen myself as a northerner, and we also have several friends in Texas.
Adam announced to a group of friends at dinner one night that we would be attending seminary--and that is when I found out :). So over Spring Break of this year we went to TX for four days and we both fell in love. Adam met with the creator of the archeaology program (which is only 2-3 years old) and they hit it off. We thought that we would not be able to participate in their summer dig but Dr. Ortiz (the creator) invited both of us!! He answered all of our questions and encouraged Adam to stay at Southwestern to receive his doctorate as well. He is slowly building up a very competitive program and pushes to get his students published and have them speak all over the country. He wants them to come out of seminary with a degree and a resume that will put them ahead of others with secular degrees in archaeology.
So instead of going to Israel for six months as we had originally planned we are only going for 35 days (5 weeks). This works out better for us because I will hopefully be able to get a job teaching art in Texas when we get back.This is the rotunda at Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.