Well begun is half-done?

And so it begins...
A journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step...

Just seeing how many "beginning" cliches I could pile up before I annoyed myself. Turns out it's only two. The third one sent me over the edge. :-)

Anyway, I started my internship yesterday and "worked" a very leisurely 10:00 to 3:00 or so, part of which was lunch at the Tavern in Northfield (which I highly recommend). By the way, I had no idea how charming Northfield is! The Tavern is in a historic downtown area where there are very fun coffee shops, pubs, boutiques, and art galleries. And at least two different people have told me about the upcoming Defeat of Jesse James Days, which sounds like quite the event.

There are still a lot of details to be worked out for the year, like the specific ways I'll be involved with each of my congregations and how the Sunday rotation will work. I'm kind-of a planner, so I wouldn't mind having more solid information, but I appreciate some of the reasoning behind these things being unresolved.

One of the best features of this internship program is the fact that I'll get to work with eight congregations and seven different pastors. They want to take advantage of the strengths of each so I can learn from the best teacher(s) in each area whenever possible. So they're working together to rethink how things have been done in the past to ensure the best possible learning experience for me, which is pretty cool.

Meanwhile, I'm kicking off this Sunday by singing some liturgy...not my strongest area. I get so nervous I forget to breathe, and that doesn't help anyone's singing! But for now I'm doing assisting rather than presiding parts, so most of it is spoken, which I can handle. The setting is Now the Feast and Celebration by Marty Haugen and the only parts I sing are the kyrie and one "The Lord be with you." So I think I'll survive, but if you don't hear from me next week, you'll know I was wrong.