Ordination - finally!

By that title I only partially mean, "finally, he is ordained!" The primary reason for the title is that the event occurred nearly a month ago and it's taken me until now to post it. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this journey, I'll give a little background. Now I'm only starting the story with seminary, which he began in August 2003; we all know that many years of prayer & thought went into the process, let alone the Lord preparing him for such an endeavor... So anyway, Bobby & I moved to St Louis 3 months after getting married and he began studies at Covenant Theological Seminary. Four very long (yet fun & exciting) years later, he graduated. With a desire to pursue a PhD, we found out that he would have to obtain another Masters degree (UGH!) so he enrolled in the MA in History degree program at West Virginia University. And to our great fortune, my aunt & uncle offered for us to live in their (extra) log cabin which is only 30-45 minutes (depending on a lot of things) from campus. Yay. So we moved in on Memorial Day weekend, 2007. Of course once we were settled, the first thing we did (after getting drivers licenses & Giant Eagle advantage cards) was look for a PCA church and we found one 20 minutes away. Double yay. A few months after attending there, we met with a couple elders, offered our assistances and soon Bobby was the Youth Director. We were initially scared of teens (I mean, youth ministry), but we quickly grew to love them and this responsibility. Then as Bobby's relationship grew with the church, the Session, and our new Pastor, he was offered a call as Asst Pastor of Youth & Families, and could now pursue ordination. So exciting. Now the fun began. He studied for weeks & weeks, then took 5 written exams - he passed, then moved onto oral exams, and passed those too, and was recommended to the Pittsburgh Presbytery for ordination as a teaching elder. Rock on. Now my fun began. We started planning the event, buying cute little napkins, ordering special bulletins, and preparing for our guests. The date was set for November 23, 2008 at 3:00 here at Greene Valley Presbyterian Church. And now that we've made it to the event, here are some pictures. I have more to get from other people, but these were a few that I captured on my camera.

Bobby receiving the charge from Pastor Keith Larson.





















Taking vows.




















Laying on of hands by the ordained PCA elders who were in attendance. We were so thrilled that Erik was able to participate in this! This is the moment when I started crying.




















The 2 hands benediction I mentioned in my last post. He finally got to do it and was too nervous to raise them all the way up. oh well, it was still awesome.




















And now... cake!