Jonathan David Faulkner

Northfield MA. This morning I find myself sitting at my In-Laws kitchen table with Hebrew Syntax and Vocab sitting next to me while the late Bibleworks boots up so I can do some Hebrew translation. Meanwhile, Wolves At the Gate streams through my headphones and my coffee sits next to me. I have come to love our time at my In-Laws house. It reminds me of my grandparent’s farm in Illinois, my escape during college and my closest family during my time in Kansas. It is cool and peaceful here with a big backyard where a year and three months ago Rachel and I said “I Do” and enjoyed Ice Cream Sundae’s with our dear families and friends. I wish more seminarians had a place like this to escape too, where they could rest and recover.

August was a good month for us, we sent out resumes and enjoyed a short vacation to North Conway New Hampshire with some close friends whom we asked to be our babies godparents. Our time with them was such a blessing though it started with a 3-hour drive through a New England Downpour. The weather while we were there was absolutely incredible even allowing us to take a train ride on the North Conway Scenic Railway. We visited shops and outlets and just relaxed, no school, minimal life worries, just a chance to breathe. Then we headed to Rachel’s parents and I had the blessing of filling the pulpit for my Father-In-Law (You can hear the sermon below).

We came back out here this weekend because Rachel had a four-day weekend and we wanted the last chance to relax and help Rachel’s mother with worship one more time before the school year begins with Orientation on Tuesday (for me) and with new students (for Rachel) and a month of September that includes two weekends away for me (including this one).

It is hard to believe I am entering my final year of Seminary and how much has changed in my life since February 2016, how much I have changed since February 2015. With the healing of my brain I have discovered a new calm and new peace that I had not had before as well as a new resolve to stand up for those who cannot. God’s work, since the brain injury, has been painful and wonderful in my life and I pray it does not stop. As for the coming semester, I have already begun working on my Thesis and am studying for a Hebrew Competency Exam scheduled for Friday the 14^th.

Pray for us as we continue to talk to churches and send out resumes, it looks as though we will likely be headed to Midwest, which we both have peace about and are actually looking forward too. Pray for continued health for Rachel and the Baby who we felt move for the first time yesterday and pray for me as I being this final year with Thesis and class schedule and the joys of Peer Mentoring. Pray for us too as we continue to wrestle with the Seminary and struggle for the health, physical and mental, of the students here. There have been some improvements that will ultimately end up saving money in the long term, but it remains to be seen how much these changes will save. As we are bombarded too with the story of pastors committing suicide and the hut and pain in the world, pray that we would be united as one in Christ sharing in that perfect peace and far outlasts all things and is well beyond understanding.