Thoughts on Entering Seminary

It is Tuesday, August 25th. I moved to Atlanta to begin my journey at Candler School of Theology one week ago. In this last week I have already learned and experienced so many new things I don’t even know where to begin. Four full days of Orientation and the whirlwind that accompanies moving to a new place later I am finally sitting down to write a reflection I had the intention of starting on my first night here. So #HereIAmCandler.

As I sat through each orientation session on topics ranging from the Curriculum to Student Programming to Spiritual Formation to the Library, I found the information overload to be a bit exhausting. As one professor put it, orientation is like drinking from a fire hose. All of this information is accurate, relevant, and good to know, but none of it applies to me right now.  As I sat in chapel each morning, I felt filled with a wonderful joy, a profound inadequacy, and an enduring apprehension all at the same time. I am excited to be here. I know I am in the right place. And yet I am still asking "Why me? How God? Where?" The start of seminary feels both imminent and surreal. I am starting, and I have not started. I am ready, and yet completely unprepared.

A focus of orientation at Candler has been how, as students of theology, we are to stay grounded in faith and spiritual practice as we study scripture and our relationship with God. The balance of prayer and work, play and rest has been emphasized over and over again. As one faculty member put it, you don’t have a "prayer life," prayer is all of life, and that cannot be forgotten when beginning to study scripture academically instead of (or rather in addition to) spiritually.

By far the most captivating part of my first week in Atlanta has been the conversations I have had with people from all over the country. I have met some incredible people who will be in my class, who have spent years doing amazing humanitarian and mission based work all over the world. I have talked with people who have prepared to begin seminary for literally years, saving up money and planning their time to be able to join this new class of seminary students. I have been humbled by people who are sacrificing so much to answer their call to ministry, and by those whose gifts for pastoral care, worship, and servant leadership are already beginning to shine in just the three days I have known them. And I am looking forward to learning and growing with them over the next three years.

As I finish up this reflection, I am munching on a piece of communion bread a friend and I made this weekend. We got the recipe from the Dean of Worship and Music, Reverend Barbara Day Miller. The bread isn’t consecrated, and I substituted the cross on the bread patty for a tic-tac-toe board, but it is still a reminder that each of us in this class, and every person reading this reflection, has been called to a purpose, to a ministry, whatever that may be. The gift of life that Jesus shares with the world knows no bounds, and God is walking with us always, through each and every day.

The Final Days of Iceland

Day 9

The last full day in Iceland began on the southern edge of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  It rained most of the day, and we spent the morning driving south along the coastline to Reykjavik.  We stopped in Akranes to jump in the community geothermal swimming pool, but unfortunately it was closed to the public because of a swimming competition.  We found a bakery instead, and grabbed a couple treats for the road.

On the drive

The orange ship is Iceland's whaling vessel.

Since the pool in Akranes was closed we went to another pool outside of Reykjavik.  I’m going to miss geothermal pools back in the US!  After a long day of driving, it felt nice to relax in the warm water and take a couple rides down the water slides.  From there Aidan and I returned to Reykjavik and checked into our AirBnb.  We went for an afternoon walk around the city, ate a pre dinner lobster roll snack, and then found a nice whale friendly restaurant to eat dinner at.

A street in Reykjavik

Aidan's meal at the restaurant

Day 10

The last morning in Iceland Aidan and I woke up early to see Reykjavik before we had to drive to the airport to fly out.  Since he flew in a day after me, he hadn’t had a chance to explore the capital city.  We walked around the University of Iceland’s campus, found a bakery to buy some snacks for the plane, and then went to a small breakfast coffee shop/winery (yes apparently those can be combined) for brunch.  After we ate we walked up to the Cathedral and took the elevator to the top.  From there we could see all of Reykjavik!  Here are some photos from the top.

And that’s all!  Wow, such a wonderful trip to Iceland.  I had fun exploring a new part of the world.  That you so much Uncle Bill :) What a great graduation present!

The Snaefellsnes Peninsula

Day 8

The day began early on the northern shore of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.  Aidan and I made breakfast (by now I am so over oatmeal it isn’t even funny), and then drove along the beautiful coastline to the quaint little town of Stykkisholmur.  This was most definitely our favorite town in Iceland.  It is far enough off the beaten path not to be frequented by tourists, and we were still early in the summer so many of the locals there greeted us in Icelandic.  It is home to one of the most beautiful modern churches I have ever seen, and quite the memorable hotdog.

Looking across the bay to the Westfjords

The town of Stykkisholmur in the distance

The harbor in Stykkisholmur

Columnar jointed basalt!

A sculpture I really liked

Mountain climber

The hotdog menu...

Aidan went "all in"

The church in Stykkisholmur

Another angle of the church

After the day in Stykkisholmur, Aidan and I continued to drive along the northern shore of the peninsula to Snaefellsjokull National Park.  There we found some glaciers and a volcano, and lots of lava fields!  We went on a hike through one of the lava fields to find some “lifting stones.”  Yup, that sounds super exciting doesn’t it?  Let me tell you….  I guess fishing-boat crews used to take aspiring fishermen here to have them lift the stones.  If you couldn’t lift the largest, you were considered a wimp and deemed unsuitable for life at sea.  The stones are as follows: Bungler (23kg), Weak (54kg), Half-Strong (100kg), and Fully Strong (154kg).  The hike would have been about 8km round trip, which doesn’t seem that far, but the going was not easy through the jagged basalt lava flows.  Needless to say we did not make it, and were dismayed when we realized that had we followed the road a couple more kilometers we could have driven right there….

The white peak in the back is Snaefellsnes.  I just called it Mt. Sneffels

Another church we drove by!

The start of the lava hike

Hiking towards Mt. Sneffels...

This hike does not get my vote.

The phrase “Gone Berserk” comes from the name of a group of people called berserkers, who were insanely violent fighters during Viking times.  According to the Icelandic Eyrbyggja Saga, a farmer brought two berserkers to Iceland from Norway to work on his farm.  Unfortunately, one of the berserkers fell in love with the farmer’s daughter.  The local chieftain, Snorri Godi, suggested to give the berserkers an impossible task and if completed, could have his daughter in marriage.  So the berserkers were asked to clear a passage through the lava field, surely impossible! (I can attest to the impossible nature of that after this hike….)  But lo and behold, the berserkers completed the task.  The rest of that story is rather gruesome…. The farmer murdered the berserkers, rather than keep his promise….  Anyway, I thought it was a good story.

The last activity of the day was a stop at Songhellir.  This Song Cave is full of 18th century graffiti, and legend tells that once upon a time dwarfs used the cave.  As the name implies, the acoustics in this cave were absolutely extraordinary.  After tromping and searching around in the snow for a while, we managed to find the entrance and then burst into song!

Emily in the Song Cave

The view from the entrance of the cave.

Did we really do all this in one day?

Day 7

The morning began in Geysir, where you can find… a geysir.  Turns out that this particular geysir is what all the other geysirs in the world are named after.  It’s the original geysir!  Unfortunately, the actual geysir erupted regularly about 80m in the air (much taller than Old Faithful in Yellowstone) until the 1950s when tourists threw rocks in it and it became clogged.  Lame.  Now it doesn’t erupt very often, and when it does it only goes a few feet in the air.  There is another geysir, Stokkur, right next to Geysir and it erupts ever six minutes or so.  And let me tell you that one puts on a show!  Unlike Old Faithful, you an stand really close to Stokkur (I’m not sure this is a good thing….)  When it goes off, a huge bubble of steam pushes the top layer of water out and up.  At first, I thought it was going to explode sideways at me so I ran back a few feet as it redirected course and shot upwards.  So cool!

Emily pretending to be the Geysir

What is left of the original Geysir

After the visit to Geysir, Aidan and I drove to Gulfoss, Iceland’s most famous waterfall.  It was slated to become a hydroelectric plant in the 1920s when they dammed the Hvita river, but Sigridur Tomasdottir went to Reykjavik to protest.  She is regarded as Iceland’s first environmentalist, and is widely respected for her actions to save Gulfoss.  We are thankful that she did because the waterfall is magnificent!

In front of the Gulfoss waterfall

It drops 32m down into the ravine

Aidan was cold

From Gulfoss we continued to ϸingviller, a historical national park.  This is the site of the world’s first democratic government, created by the Vikins in 930 AD.  The site itself is located in the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, which creates some dramatic scenery over land that is moving about 13mm every year.  ϸingviller was chosen for it’s relatively central locality in Iceland, so that representatives from all areas of the country could reach it.  It remained the central point of government in Iceland until 1843, when the members of parliament voted to move the meeting place to Reykjavik.

A river running through the rift valley

North America on my right, Europe on my left!

Aidan and the Icelandic flag

There were sundials all over Iceland!  I suppose they would
work well if it is summer.

ϸingvallavatn, Iceland’s largest lake

From ϸingviller, we drove over a mountain road to head northwest in the country. Our goal was to drive up to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, and explore some cool sites along the way.  We were looking for some lava tubes near Husafell, which though out of the way, sounded really fun to explore!  We drove over a mountain pass and made our first stop in Reykholt, home of Snorri Sturluson, a famous medieval historian.

Through the mountains

Sheep everywhere!

A beautiful church in Reykholt

Snorralaug (Snorri's Pool), where the historian Snorri came to bathe

We continued the drive to Husafell in search of the lava tubes, but a snowdrift over one of the mountain roads unfortunately blocked our way.  Late in the evening, we turned the car around and drove back the way we had come and then up to the very edge of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, where we could camp for the night and then explore the next day.

More mountain roads

Made it to the ocean!

The wilderness camping site

ICE CLIMBING!!!

Day 6

Woooooo!!!! This day was awesome!!!  It began early in Vik; we packed up the car and immediately went to the gas station to buy an extra container of fuel for the camp stove.  We also picked up a couple pastries, some coffee, and walked around town and down to the ocean.  We stopped in an Icelandic clothing store and ran into a group of people that had graduated from Northeastern with Aidan!  What a small world.

Sea cliffs by the ocean

After a bit of exploring, we drove to the glacier Solheimajokull for an ICE CLIMBING ADVENTURE!!!  We met our guide in the parking lot, stepped into our harnesses and crampons, slapped on a helmet, grabbed an ice ax and we were off to the glacier!

All ready to go!

Our guide, ϸorsteinn, ϸor for short (pronounced “Thor”), 

explaining how not to fall into a crevasse.

All the dirt is ash from the last eruption of Katla in 2011
(not kidding -- a glacier on a volcano!)

Lookin' like a pro!

Our group

The crampons on our feet were probably the most dangerous part of the glacier expedition, as the dude behind me can attest.  Shortly after the picture above was taken he tripped over his ice ax and sliced his rain pants open with the spikes on his feet.  Thankfully he didn’t cut his leg, and was fine all things considered.  While the guide was helping him out, I used my ice ax to chip a seat into the glacial ice and relax.

The guides setting up the anchor for the safety rope (top right).
We 1) climbed down into that hole in the background and
2) climbed out of it.

Ready to climb!

Fun on the glacier

Starting to climb

Spider woman (not the greatest form)

I had "Elvis legs."  They started shaking
because I forgot to breathe.

At the top of the wall, beginning to repel
back down

Aidan's turn!

Impeccable form.

At the top!

And the repel

After we all got a chance to climb, we began our descent off the glacier.  While walking down I asked our guide about a hundred questions about Iceland and glaciers and the like.  Turns out they don’t have any parasites in Iceland, so you don’t have to worry about drinking water from any of the rivers!  Unless there is a dead sheep in the stream above you, then you might have a problem.  Since we were on a glacier, we figured there probably wouldn’t be any sheep higher up, so ϸor found a nice little glacial stream and invited us all to take a sip. 

To demonstrate, he got down on all fours and did a push-up over the stream, sipping the water before standing back up again.  The rest of the group proceeded to take a drink, with all the men doing push-ups and all the women just kneeling.  Well, myself, a strong proponent of “I am woman, hear me roar!” decided I could match all the men and also do a drinking push-up.  I got into position… lowered myself for the drink… and PLOP!  My arms gave out and I ended up face down in a stream on a glacier.  Embarrassed, I quickly got back into push-up position.  I could not let that be the final say!  So naturally I had to try again and prove I could do a push-up and drink from the stream.  Unfortunately Round 2 did not yield more favorable results…  This time I once again landed face first in the stream, only could not even find the strength to push myself back up and PROCEDED TO ROLL OUT OF THE STREAM.  I am not even kidding.  Thoroughly embarrassed, and still thirsty, I stood up and retreated back to my spot in line, vowing to do 100 push-ups a day for as many days as it took for this never to happen again. (I’m going to go with ‘my arms were fatigued from the ice climbing’ excuse for this one, but also start doing push-ups every day just in case).  And NO there are no pictures from this event. :)

This glacier (Solheimajokull) is on Katla, one of the largest volcanoes in Iceland.  This is a very active volcano, with major eruptions occurring every 13 to 95 years since 930 AD.  The last major eruption was in 1918… 97 years ago… you see where I’m going with this.  Katla is due to erupt at any time.  Last year, ϸor told us that they evacuated the area three times because they thought that an eruption was imminent.  On two of those occasions the sulfur dioxide emitted by the volcano was so potent that it would cause permanent eye and lung damage within 15 minutes of exposure.  In June 2011 a small eruption occurred, bringing the ash you see covering the glacier.  Geologists continue to monitor the area for volcanic activity, and anticipate a major eruption in the near future.