I (drew) had been meaning to email Dan Byrd (college minister at Marshall University) all week last week, and just never got around to it. Finally, on Thursday afternoon, just before my last class at 2:30, I emailed Dan and told him that I was interested in Southeastern Seminary and that I wondered if he would write one of my required personal recommendations (he said “yes”). Rather than emailing me back, though he gave me an immediate buzz on my cell phone, saying:

“Hey I’m getting ready to leave with a bunch of students from Marshall to go down and tour Southeastern; you and Emily should come along!”

Wow, talk about a last minute trip. It would be about an 7 hour trip from Morgantown to Wake Forest, North Carolina where the Seminary is, and I would have to miss my last class that day (Thursday) and miss both of my classes on Friday, but this would the perfect opportunity to look at the campus and see where we might live. Well, of course we jumped on the opportunity!

I called Dan back and we decided that Emily and I would meet his group in Beckley (where my parents live), and ride together from there to Wake Forest. Emily and I rounded up a change of clothes each and swooped down to Beckley, eating dinner with my family that night and then hopping on the church van with Dan and his crew. We drove all evening and reached Wake Forest at about 11PM, and it was Sleep Forest then, nobody was awake.

The next morning we all got up, and after a bite of a continental breakfast, headed to the Seminary campus where we took tours of the university housing and the campus. We also got to sit in on a class. The one Emily and I sat in on was Personal Evangelism.

Overall, Emily and I had a supertastic time hanging out with Dan and the Marshall crew in a beautiful area of the country, viewing a sweet-mother Southern Baptist Seminary. I’m in the process of filling out an application for Southeastern at the moment, and getting all the necessary forms together. It’s exciting!

Emily’s been online since we got back on Saturday, looking for schools around the Raleigh-Durham area where she might study nursing. Oh, and since leaving on this last minute seminary trip, Emily didn’t get to take her driving test on Friday. We are definitely going to go this coming week sometime. In other news, Emily got her new debit card in the mail!

In closing, I would just like to point out for anyone that missed it that God is amazing in orchestrating people’s lives, and if yours isn’t in his control then you need to yield to the Almighty. Coincidence that I emailed Dan just in time for Emily and I to catch a ride to tour the seminary? It could very well be, but we’re giving God all the credit and praise anyways.