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THE VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY

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kairoj

A Weekly Newspaper Issue 188, Oct. 5 - Oct. 9, 2009

More than words

Doug Cartwright is a Middler MDiv student under care of Palo DuroPresbytery. He is an Inquirer for Minister of Word and Sacrament.

“I’m really glad you are here.” These werethe initial words I heard when I first set foot onAustin Seminary’s campus. It was a beautiful fallday, and I had driven down from Wichita Falls,about five hours north of Austin. I arrived oncampus, and upon my arrival a senior uttered thephrase, “I’m really glad you are here,” before I couldeven get all the way out of my car.It was Discovery Weekend, and I had nointention of visiting APTS until the Tuesday of thatsame week. In fact, our president, Ted Wardlaw, had been at my home church speaking the previousweekend, and he had invited me to come down for avisit. Ted was one of a long list of people who hadencouraged me to think about seminary over theyears, and I remember looking at him and more orless uttering my usual response of, “Thanks but NoThanks.”Ted smiled and shook my hand, and I toldhim that it was great to have met him and hear himpreach at our church. Little did I know then…Ted’sinvitation pretty much wrecked my life as I hadknown it.That evening and the very next day I foundmyself in a type of unrest unlike anything I had everexperienced. The best way to describe it would be tosay that I knew something was wrong, and it felt likeI was going to drown if I didn’t figure out what itwas. I had never felt anything like this before.The next evening I went to speak with a closefriend of mine, and I shared this unrest with him.We spent several hours talking when it suddenlydawned on me…the unrest I was experiencing was a

What I Learned at mySPM today

Paul Dubois reﬂects onlife interactions withsome of the smallest increation.

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Invite to Write

Middler DougCartwright reﬂects onhis call to seminaryand his inclusion in thecommunity.

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Interview with theCabinet

Find out why VicePresident for BusinessAffairs, Kurt Gabbard,dresses up eachHalloween.

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Campus Happenings

Senior Preachingcontinues this week.See what else is on deck for the semester.

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Meet the Juniors

Find out more aboutthe new students oncampus.

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Interview with Author,Julie Clawson

Julie Clawsonpresented her book

Everyday Justice

at Manna, if you missedit, here’s an interview.

Page 11

ISSUE 188 WWW.AUSTINSEMINARY.TYPEPAD.PORTAL/KAIROS.HTML

response to denying a call. It was there in myfriend’s home, after midnight, that I said the words,“I think I am supposed to go to seminary.”As the words came out of my mouth, it was asif I was ascending from the abyss to the surface of the water where I was about to take a breath that mylungs were longing for…So I logged on to theinternet and typed in the following webdestination…www.austinseminary.edu.I spent the next couple of hours browsing theAPTS website. I actually clicked on every single link and read every page of the site. The next morning Icalled the seminary and asked if there was any way Icould be a part of Discovery Weekend. To thisquestion, Jack Barden simply replied, “come ondown.”So here we are back at the beginning. I pulledup on campus on that beautiful fall day. Before Icould get out of my car, I heard the words, “I’mreally glad you are here.” I didn’t think much of it atthe time, but it was nice hearing someone saysomething so welcoming.As I fast forward in my mind a bit, Iremember how often I heard these words duringorientation, midterms, and finals of my firstsemester. I remember hearing these words through Jan-Term Hebrew. I recall hearing them through theSpring semester and even in Greek camp. This stringof words that comprised a sentence becamesomething like an anchor for me during my first yearof seminary, and they anchored me to a communityrather than an abyss.Some might ask what the big deal is about aphrase like this one. I would even venture to saythat some might not understand the significance of aplace that appreciates each other in this way…letalone vocalizes it. I believe that it is somethingspecial and dear that we have here at AustinSeminary. It is more than words, and it ismore thana phrase. It is more than a good feeling or a warmfuzzy. It is more than a cliché. It connects each of usas we realize how it is we are connected in andthrough God, and it is the heart behind the matter.With that said…I hope that all who read thiswill realize that I and many others are really gladyou are here.

-Doug Cartwright

Happy Times

Christian Schmidt is a Junior MDiv Unitarian Universalist studentin the care of the Southwest Unitarian Universalist Conference.

There’s 5:47 left to play, and the University of Houston’s football team is down five points and has95 yards to go for a touchdown. This is where, in the10 years I’ve been a fan of the Cougars, theyinevitably find a way to come close but not seal thedeal.It’s UH we’re talking about, not the mighty,mighty APTS flag football team. My Cougars haven’t been a force since some of our seminary classmateswere still learning to read.But this time, they did it. They drove 95 yards,scored a touchdown to take the lead, then held TexasTech off and won. They won!“This ranks among the happiest moments of my life,” I wrote on my Facebook status. And it does.I love football. I love sports. I’m the guy thatpreached a sermon about the spirituality of baseball,after all. And I love my Cougars. UH doesn’t havethe highest profile nationwide, or even in Texas, but Iwouldn’t trade my years there for time at any othercollege.But come Sunday morning, I wondered whatother moments rank among the happiest of my life?To be honest, I’m not usually that self-reflective, atleast about the past. Or, to be more accurate, I’mmore likely to obsess over poor choices and missedopportunities, than to remember the good times.So, in the ample free time I have (that was a joke, seminarians. Get it?), I sat down to make a listof a few of the happiest moments in my 28 years onthis planet. Here goes:

ISSUE 188 WWW.AUSTINSEMINARY.TYPEPAD.PORTAL/KAIROS.HTML

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1.The day I realized I wanted to become a UUminister. This also ties for the scariest momentof my life.2. Scoring a goal in the final soccer game of myhigh school career. It was gorgeous; I jukedtwo defenders, then fired a shot low and leftunderneath the keeper. You’ll have to believeme, there’s no video evidence. But it waseasily the greatest athletic highlight of my life.3.Officiating at my friend April’s wedding.4.The first time I told a woman that I loved her.5.Standing atop the Eiffel Tower with my bestfriend Sean.I don’t pretend to think that anybody outside of my mother will care that much about the happiestmoments of my life. But for me, it felt like animportant exercise in being grateful for thewonderful things I’ve been a part of.So, what are the happiest moments of your life?Think about it.

-Christian Schmidt

The President wants YOU! tohave lunch with him.

Next lunch, Tuesday, October 13, 2009Sign up at the McCord Desk

What I Learned at MySPM Today:

Higher Ground

Paul Dubois is a Senior MDiv Student under care of the SouthwestConference

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As I stood on the front stoop this afternoon,watching my youngest disembark from the carpool, Ifelt a stinging sensation in my right foot. Ooh, notgood; I’ve felt that before. Fire ants. Thirty or fortyof the little creatures were swarming on my barefoot, with hundreds more on the surroundingconcrete. A few inches from where my foot was, athick trail of ants could be traced about 20 feet back to the hill they were abandoning next to the stormwater pond. The ants wound their way towards theapartment, along the steps, then up to the porch.The trail diverged, with one branch taking the insidetrack into the wooden door jam, while the other branch climbed the brick and went into the siding of the upstairs apartment. Somewhere above my head Iimagine a happy reunion, of sorts, a joyous arrival ina promised land.

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It’s quite a site, really. Thousands of ants. Allmoving in one direction, many of whom werecarrying eggs or larvae.

Purpose.

Hours later, afterdark, the pace had not subsided one bit.

Determination.

The hill they were abandoning wasintact. It had not been violently breached by one of the wandering bands of young boys who frequentthe area. It had not been accidentally stepped on bya wayfaring UT student. It was intact. Like theAnasazi who abandoned Mesa Verde and ChacoCanyon a thousand years ago… the reason for theexodus was elusive; we can only speculate.

Mystery

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But, there was a clue. Perhaps this is far-fetched, but a few minutes before discovering theants, I heard that we are in for some potentiallyheavy rainfall this weekend—a ‘Special WeatherStatement’ had been issued. This is not simply aseries of thunderstorms passing through, but a