Sunday, September 14, 2008

Next Steps...

On Friday morning, along with 3 other exit students, I made a brief presentation to the Synod Placements committee in preparation for their prayerful deliberation on matching each of us with a potential intern placement to commence next year. Prior to making our presentations, the 4 of us were invited to join the committee for their opening worship, which included the Old Testament passage from this Sunday's lectionary (Exodus 14:19-31) which told the story of the Israelites' escape from Egypt across the Red Sea, and subsequent drowning of the Egyptian army that was pursuing them

This led the 4 us (who were feeling just a tad on edge at the time) to discuss amongst ourselves whether at that particular point we identified more with the Israelites or the Egyptians... either way, we decided that for this occasion, we should change our collective descriptor from "exit students" to "Exodus students", which felt quite fitting.

Anyway, our presentations all went well, and we then left the meeting to debrief over an early lunch together... counting down the hours/minutes until we would receive the phone call to inform us of what placement the committee thought would be a good match.

I have been bouncing off the walls with excitement (even more than usual!) since about 5:30 Friday night, after hearing about the place I have been asked to have a conversation with. Whilst I can't disclose specific details at this point in the process, I can say that it is a placement in country Victoria, which is what I was both expecting and hoping for.

After a bit of preliminary internet research about the local region on Friday night, I can't wait to get there for a visit. (And it also looks like a lovely place for entertaining visitors who want a relaxing retreat from the city! :-)

So, the next steps will be that I will receive a copy of the placement profile in the next few days, so I can check out the details of the placement, and their specific ministry priorities, as well as some of the logistics about the people and place. Soon after that I will be contacted by a rep from the placement's Joint Nominating Committee to arrange a time for me to meet with the JNC, have a look around the church, the manse and the local area, and commence our conversations.


So, depending on how soon the JNC and I can get together, and if the conversations go well, I may have some official news sometime in the next few weeks- at which point I will definitely be shouting it from the rooftops (and this blog, of course! :-)

(although a cheeky friend from Tasmania reckoned that Allan Thompson would be sure to beat me to the punch and spread the word across the Tas Presbytery before I had a chance to do any shouting from rooftops :-)... but either way, once it's all official, the word will get to you!

So now, I have to come down to earth and work on a couple of essays that are due. (sigh)


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