A busy Sunday morning at Oxford Circle: Baptism, Baby dedication, lots of visitors.

The annual Weaver cabin trip to central PA.

Making a mountain of pancakes.
Shuffleboard tournament.
Fictionary (create your own definitions and try to fool other players). One person copied the definition of "quahog" from the dictionary as "a clam that is round like a hog and it tastes really good." Needless to say, no one picked the right definition that time around and we had to specify new rules about bending/supplementing the dictionary definitions.

Hiking- Andrew prepares for a dive into the puddle below.

The Fossil Toss. Winner: Everyone (we're all winners if we try).

On Sunday afternoon, June 15, I was licensed at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church to serve the congregation this fall as interim associate pastor along with pastor Lynn Parks while senior pastor Leonard Dow is on sabbatical.
Bishop Freeman Miller credentialing.

Words of response.

After the service: Ron Sider, Leonard Dow, J. Carl Sensenig, Freeman Miller.

Christy's commissioning/graduation from Eastern University's School of Leadership and Development. She earned an M.A. in international development (minus the internship, which she'll do in the spring).

A trip downtown put Christy on the map.

On Saturday we surprised Christy with a 24th birthday party.

Paul and Gised (caught in mid-smile, not an unusual expression for her).

"Outdoor Philadelphia with Kurt Sensenig"

The Philadephia Inquirer has made Cousin Kurt a producer of a show called "Outdoor Philadelphia with Kurt Sensenig" to be shown on their website, philly.com. Check out the first episode:
http://www.philly.com/philly/video/080530_pc_outdoors_forge.html

and the promo site:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hot_topics/19430589.html

Nice work Kurt!

Dinner with Tiffany and Curtis, Corey and Mary

Palmer Seminary friend and hallmate Bob Orombi married Marisa Franklin in Cincinnati.


Guillermo, Mandie, Herbert

My nephew Aaron turned one year old on May 22.

He's walking and trying to say a few words like "mommy," "apple," and "hermeneutics."

Preparations for the wedding are coming along. Christy and I went to a greenhouse and planted some flowers in my parents' garden. We hope to use whatever comes up as decorations.

Graduation
On May 17 I graduated with my M.Div. from Palmer Seminary. The ceremony was held at Enon Tabernacle Baptist.

I'm grateful for my family and friends who came to show their support.
With Christy and Edwin

With Ron Sider

Celebrating the end of another academic year

My mom recently won a 2008 Innovation of the Year award from the League for Innovation in the Community College:

http://www.league.org/league/competitions/innovations/display2008.cfm

A Successful Collaboration Benefits Nursing Students

by Julia Sensenig
Winner Institution: Lancaster Campus of the Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC)
Innovation Type: Learning and Teaching

Description: Associate degree nursing students spend clinical days in a nursing care center established at an urban medical clinic. The students meet with patients who are referred to the center by primary care providers for educational sessions on topics such as smoking cessation, nutrition, and exercise. The students learn to think critically, apply the nursing process, use therapeutic communication, appreciate culturally diverse patients, and evaluate a variety of teaching strategies. The HACC nursing department benefits from this additional clinical site where students are positively impacting the health of underserved, uninsured, and underinsured persons. There have been over 3000 patient visits since the center opened.

How this project is being recognized:An article about the HACC Nursing Care Center was published in the August 2007 issue of Journal of Nursing Education (pp. 373-379).

The criteria this project has met:
Quality

Efficiency
Cost Effectiveness

Creativity
Timeliness

Replication

Camden, New Jersey

Derrick and Rebekah Good Charles were visiting from Harrisonburg, VA, so we spent the day with friends Tim and Cheryl Heatwole Shenk at the Camden House, an intentional community across the river from Philadelphia.

We weeded and placed good soil and mulch in a plot of land that will serve as a community garden.

We also saw the greenhouse, where a bike powers the hose to water the plants.
Christy watering.

The Palmer graduating class had a senior banquet. Christy's dance team (Rejoice) gave another high energy performance that brought down the house.

Last weekend Kevin and Sarah, core members of the Palmer seminary community, moved off campus to a place in Kenzington. We had a goodbye party complete with cupcakes spelling various words and a poster depicting the faces of Palmer.

Late night wiffleball in the parking lot has been one of our recent activities. Don't buy the cheap balls; they split in half on the first decent swat (although it does make one feel remarkably like Barry Bonds).

Our friends Freeman and Naomi Miller joined us for dinner. Naomi is administrative assistant to Ron Sider and Freeman is a bishop in Philadelphia and the supervisor for my internship at Oxford Circle Mennonite Church.

Christy and I took advantage of a bright spring day in April; our friend Stephanie took several hundred engagement photos of us at the horticultaral center in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke at St. Joseph's University, which is up the street from Palmer. He talked about the transformation coming out of seemingly hopeless situations in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

ESA Conference

This weekend Evangelicals for Social Action hosted the "Scandal of Evangelical Politics" conference here on campus. Ron Sider, the convener, published a book by the same title earlier this year for which I did research.

I enjoyed the event thoroughly. There was a whole slew of people on campus whose books I'd read and whom I've seen on TV. I went to workshops by Richard Cizik and James Skillen. On Saturday night the Hermeneutics played while Osaze Murray ("Oppose") rapped. Then on Sunday morning we led worship for the conference. During the prelude we played some original songs.

How the mighty have fallen...

My Togolese friend Pascal, who swore he'd never marry, is now engaged to Julienne. Felicitations mon ami!

My beautiful fiancee Christy practicing a dance with friends Andrea and Nana for Sunday's worship service.

On Saturday my grandparents Dorothy and Earl Sensenig celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Here they are with all their children and their spouses. I'm thankful for their testimony of God's goodness to sustain a lifelong commitment.

Thanks to Andrew for the photo.