He's got the diploma in his hands!

It has been one busy week here, full of adventures.  Bob graduated on Monday! In-laws and parents came in Saturday, Sunday was convocation, Monday was commencement and the diploma ceremony, Tuesday was touring some parts of greater CT and Wednesday everyone went home yesterday.  I'm just now starting to get my mind wrapped around what I need to get done for this coming Sunday (no rest for the weary). 

I'll post my sermon from this last Sunday, as well as some updates on how Pentecost went with all the doves and ribbons and streamers later but first I have to play proud spouse! Bob graduated with his Master of Arts degree from Yale's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization Department in the field of Assyeriology.  And if that isn't a mouthful enough to make someone impressed, he also graduated with a 4.0!

We were blessed with a beautiful weekend/week to celebrate other than a few sprinkles Monday morning it was a gorgous on Yale's campus.  And we had a beautiful time under the trees of old campus for commencement. 

 

 Two hard years of work and now diploma in hand (written in Latin)

Graduation was wonderful, but you can tell Yale has done this a time or 308 times before.  Everything was very organized and actually went quite quickly for the amount of students who were graduating. 

On Sunday, we attended the Graduate School convocation.  The speaker was one of the first females to graduated with a PhD in the sciences from Harvard.  Her speech was about having a love for learning, being accepting of all people to learn and that some of the greatest discoveries in scholarship happen by chance.  And being aware of the number of people and time, award winners were announced at commencement, but only those present were actually announced and just their names were said, not their thesis/dissertation titles.

On Monday, at commencement, they had students stand by school and the dean of that school ask the provost to confer their degrees.   I really think it took longer to announce the 8 honorary doctorates than it did to award the few thousand bachelors, masters, MD and PhD degrees.  After the large commencement, we then broke up by school to receive diplomas, and at the Graduated School's diploma ceremony they announce the degree, and the names of those present who walked across the stage to receive their diploma. I'm glad they did things so quickly since we were in a large un-air conditioned building whose windows did not open.  Afterward, the grad school hosted a lunch of sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit, etc.  It was a good thing too, since everyone was starving and the New Haven restaurants would have been overrun with people otherwise. 

For our greater CT adventures on Tuesday we took our parents on a winery tour.  The first winery, Haight-Brown, was closed :-( but it did have an interesting sculpture - Bob thought it looked like sperm.

At the second vineyard, Hopkins Vineyard, we ate lunch overlooking this beautiful view: 

And at the third, DiGrazia Vineyard, I fell in love with this porch:

I'm so proud of Bob and we've had a wonderful week with family but I'm also so glad to be able to sit and not worry about where to take family or when we have to be somewhere.  I'm also glad that Bob achieved such a great accomplishment. 

Church-y Craftiness

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, when the church celebrates the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples.  It is also the birthday of the church universal as it is often seen as the day the followers of Jesus moved from being a small group to a movement. 

Pentecost is celebrated in many ways, the most basic way is with people wearing red, the color of the day and having bright red paraments (the cloth covering the altar and the pulpit and the stole (aka scarf) the pastor wears).  Often the readings or a portion of them are read in a variety of languages since the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak in other languages. 

Bethlehem will do these things but also the church will be DECORATED!  A bunch of geraniums are ordered to go behind the altar, around the pulpit and in the window sills.  Balloons will float at the end of the pews and outside the doors.  And two new things are happening, hence my church-y craftiness. 

The first is ribbon poles.  During the procession of the cross, two of our youth will follow the cross, waving poles of red ribbons.  A member of the congregation and myself saw this at another church when we went to the Book of Faith Festival the other week.  My internship congregation discussed making these while I was there (though I cannot remember them being used).  So here is what I did.  I got to 1/2 inch pvc pipe, some white spray paint for plastic, some binder clips (can be found at any office supply store) and a bunch of red ribbons (satin mainly since it flows well) of varying widths and shades.

I went with 7 foot pipes since Bethlehem's ceiling is sort of low and chandeliers hang in the aisle (both the processional cross and the cross that we used on Good Friday have been hit on a chandelier before).  My first step was to drill a small hole about a 1/2 inch down from the top of the pipe.  I then went to town spray painting the pipes. 

Next I used my sewing machine and just a needle and thread to sew the top 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fabric over to make little loops in the ribbons.  The ribbons were between 4 and 6 feet in length.  And then I threaded the loops through the binder clip. And then attached the binder clip to the pole through the hole that I drilled in it. 

The finished product:  

They don't look like much now, but waving in the sanctuary they will look beautiful! 

The other project I enlisted the help of the Sunday School kids.  This last Sunday I taught a brief lesson on the Holy Spirit and we made origami doves made from dollies.  (Click here to find out how to make them)   The dove is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit.  At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove.  All total they kids made 60 of them.  So yesterday I spent a good portion of the day putting thread through them so we can hang them from the chandeliers or other parts of the ceiling.  Right now I have a flock of origami doves in my dining room. 

I'm decorating the sanctuary on Saturday morning with some parishioners.  I'm excited to see how great the place will look on Sunday with flowers, balloons, doves, and streamers.  But I'm more excited for Sunday worship when people will read John 3:16 in Swedish, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Akkadian, Sumerian, Ukrainian, Japanese, and Polish.

Oh and did I mention yet that both my parents and in-laws will be there?  Bob is graduating this weekend, convocation on Sunday and commencement and degree ceremony on Monday.  He has translated John 3:16 into both Akkadian and Sumerian and I think it is appropriate and exciting that he gets to use both on his graduation day in front of his parents.  More about graduation weekend coming soon.