City life

Well, I realized there have been some city stories that I haven't shared yet! One being that I tried to go rollerblading in the city a few weeks ago. I have been trying to find parks in the city. Someone had warned me about a park called "Fair Park" that was in fact not a park at all. Well, they said that it wouldn't be what I thought it would be. However, I googled rollerblading in Dallas and this park came up with a review from someone stating that it was a good park to try! So, luckily my roommate and I both own rollerblades so we gave it a shot. After all the park is not far from my apt. On a nice hot cloudless Sunday after noon we ventured over to Fair Park. When we entered the area I thought hmm..surely there is more to it than this. It was obviously a large place. There were multiple gates but nothing really green to speak of. I was hopefully stubborn and thought well there must be a nice place to rollerblade because the internet says so! Upon more investigating we just kept driving from parking lot to parking lot! "Fair Park" is where the Texas Sate Fair is held so there is a ton of park-ing..but no real "park." It suddenly dawned on me that the miles and miles of hot, concrete, parking lots that we were driving through must be what the review on the internet was talking about. I was immediately amused and disappointed at the same time. Someone had a different definition of park than I do. And all of that concrete was hot!! Nevertheless in all of our time spent investigating we figured it was as good as place as any so geared up and bladed for a little while from concrete slab to concrete slab. Welcome to the city!

Another amusing city tidbit; On Thursday on my way from school I saw some pigeons taking a bath in a pothole in the street. The pothole was not more than a foot by a foot and those crazy pigeons were jumping in and out of the pothole to dodge cars in between quick dips. Life in the city can be rough!

Dr. Dwight Pentecost

One of the many benefits to studying God's word at seminary is meeting the distinguished faculty. I do have classes with Dr. Howard Hendricks otherwise known as "The Prof." For those of of you well versed in Biblical..Christian stuff his name may mean something to you. He is very well respected and really an amazing man of God. But, I have had the privilege to actually spend quality time with one of the professors.
Dr. Dwight Pentecost is another distinguished professor here. He was born in 1915 so he is an aging man (not unlike the rest of us I suppose) but despite his age he still speaks in chapel and teaches a class. I got the opportunity to have a meal with him and other students during one of my first nights here. As a result of that wonderful time and conversation I learned that he had married a southern woman. She has since gone to be with the Lord. But, in honor of her..and him I made him a plate of biscuits and delivered them to his apartment. His apartment is beautiful! He was kind enough to visit with myself and a friend I brought along who is a HUGE fan of him and his writing. In fact I really must give credit to my friend who really introduced me to Dr. P. and helped me understand his contributions.

Apparently it is tradition for Dr. P. to give ice cream to his visitors. So, I enjoyed a big bowl of ice cream! He is a witty, wise, gentle, man and we had so much fun! I have linked his name to a wikipedia page that will tell you a little bit about him and his accomplishments in case you don't know who in the world I'm talking about!

The Blevins' family farm

Well, if you've noticed there is a trend here. Living in Germany I spent almost every weekend for two years with friends Nathan and Amanda and my sweet roommate Erika! So, since moving to Texas I have gotten to see Nathan and Amanda 3 times! That's amazing. They only live about 2 hours away, but still it's tough to see them. So, for Labor Day weekend (pictured below) I traveled with them to Nathan's family farm. We did the Labor Day weekend things like picnic and eat watermelon of course. And...we got to see the horses, mules, cows and chickens. The farm is located in northwest Arkansas so it was fun to do a little traveling too!

Labor Day Weekend

Texas baseball

I attended a Fort Worth minor league baseball game with my friends from Germany; Nathan and Amanda. They love to introduce me to their friends as "their German friend" and people sometimes actually assume that I'm actually German and speak limited English! So, sometimes I give them blank stares just for fun but mostly I open my mouth and it comes out "Georgian" and they get it!

Chapel

Chapel sounds boring doesn't it? I thought it would be boring. I have never gone to a Christian school before so the "chapel" thing is new. Attending chapel from a student's point of view anyway. When I was teaching in Germany we had chapel for the kids..but it's one thing to lead it and another to be required to attend. So, I LOVE chapel! There is something about hundreds of adults getting together 4 days a week to sing praises at the top of their lungs..and the guests we have are pretty darn famous, in the Christian world anyway. Today Dr. Charles Swindoll was the speaker for Chapel. I had to work so I missed it in person. But, I can watch it online..and so can you! If you want to be encouraged and watch a DTS chapel online check out www.dts.edu/media/podcasts/ or go to www.dts.edu and click on chapel. Disclaimer: Dr. Swindoll's message from today is not up there yet. I have not yet figured out how to navigate it completely but at any rate it's a blessing .