Plans

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. It's great to be home...though I complain about the cold, it feels more like Christmas here as compared to 80 degrees and palm trees in Florida.
Well, I have plans! For the next 2 years of my life! I've recently been accepted to Fuller Seminary's MA program in cross-cultural studies. In a month or so, I'll be heading to the west coast. I have to admit that I'm a bit intimidated about reentering the world of academia, as well as adjusting to California life. I'm pretty sure I fit in better in Africa. However, there is a small Ethiopian community in LA, so I'll hopefully be frequenting that area to keep up my Amharic. An added blessing is that my dear friend, Daphne, with whom I have gallivanted all over the globe, is there. She's gettin hitched in April (they probably don't use such terminology in LA), so I'm looking forward to being in closer proximity to help her with wedding stuff.
Just to explain my decision to go with this program...I've been looking into various grad programs for some time. Initially I thought I wanted to do an agricultural development program. But after visiting UC Davis and reading about several other programs, I realized it was more science/research based than I was interested in. So my search shifted to international development programs with a mixture of anthropology, international policy, sociology, etc. It was soon after I started researching this type of program that I attended a conference hosted by Food for the Hungry. Bryant Myers, author of "Walking with the Poor" and a Fuller prof, was a plenary speaker. In his address, he stressed the importance of development workers being well-rounded in both theology and cultural understanding/sensitivity. I long to know the Bible better and believe that grad school will provide a challenging environment to understand the Kingdom of God through different cultural contexts. I then became set on Fuller because of their partnerships with other universities to receive business administration training. My ultimate goal is to gain skills in business to assist subsistence farmers in starting income generating activities.
So that's the path I'm on. Two years feels like long-term planning for me. I already want to start a countdown until I can get to Africa again! Still not sure exactly what part of the continent...it's a big place...and every experience so far has been amazing.