So I just read Jenny's last post and I was reminded how wonderful she is. On top of her many talents she is a great writer as she did a superb jog of summarizing the past month in a few short paragraphs! It's hard to believe we've only been in Chicago a few months as it is already feeling like home and we've gotten into the rhythm of our new life here. Having said that, I was reminded through a conversation with a fellow student and new friend how much I miss you all. As most of you realize, I haven't done a great job of staying in touch. However, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you all from time to time. Emails, phone calls, letters, notes of encouragement are always appreciated. My pledge to you is to do a better job of keeping you all in the loop with what is going on in my life in return. I'll respond to your direct contacts as well as attempt to keep this blog more up to date.

My classes are going fairly well. Sadly I did not do very well on my mid term Greek exam, but the professor has graciously agree to allow me to take an additional vocabulary test to make up for quite a few of my lost points. My other two classes (Introduction to Biblical Studies and Personal Inquiry Into Faithfulness) are going well. I just did a paper for IBS on Matthew 21:33-46 which is the parable of the tenants. It's pretty incredible the life a passage can take when you explore it from so many different perspectives. The perspective of those Jesus was talking to, the perspective of writer 50 years after Jesus' death and so many more perspectives. It was a tough paper, but all in all it was a good experience. Now I just hope the grade will reflect that!

In PIF we are talking about the sacrament of the Eucharist or communion. That has been fascinating and I have to write a paper on that for Tuesday. So classes are going well and we are in the home stretch. Only four weeks to go! I need to sign up for Jterm classes and Spring semester as well as decide if I'm going to do my CPE this summer. Needless to say, life keeps on and is very busy, but good. I've made at least one close friend and several other good friends. We hope that all of you are doing well and look forward to hearing from you and appreciate the past words of encouragement too!

Matt and Jenny