The first step on a new road...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi.

I mentioned in Saturday's post-that-should-have-been-Friday's that we are starting a school of ministry at church.  It's a unique program...affiliated with West Coast Bible College and Seminary, an online campus.  Our program will be centered around quarterly weekend seminars, followed up by online coursework.

I thought it looked good, so I signed up and went through the whole application process.

And the folks at West Coast recommended that I pursue a Master's degree instead.

After some discussion with a couple of pastors and my hubby, and some thoughtful and prayerful consideration, I decided to go ahead and go that route and was able to transfer my seminar registration payment to The Actor, who was also interested in working on his education.   I paid for the master's program coursework last week, downloaded the syllabus for the first class and ordered the book from Amazon.

So, instead of being a student at the first weekend seminar, I helped with the admin tasks.  Just for the record, I could hear some of the lectures...they sounded really good.  And the comments I heard from folks who were in the seminars were all quite positive.  That makes me hopeful for the classes I'll be taking.

The textbook for my first class....English Composition.. arrived today.  I printed out the study notes, put together my notebook, and read the first two chapters as instructed for the first assignment.

I figured the writing class would be a good place to start, since most of the grade is based on written work.

The first chapter is about using the least words, the second about using the best words.   I was a bit chagrined that I only did so-so on the first editing exercise, despite the fact that I'm well aware that I tend to be, um, wordy.  I shouldn't have been surprised that I didn't cut enough. I need to sharpen the editing axe.

You'll  have to pay attention to the blog posts over the next few weeks and see if I am implementing what I learn. ;-)

Now, I am fully aware that this is a correspondence school, not a fully accredited (although they are working towards accreditation) institution.  But it is enough for now.

A small step...we'll see where this road goes...