Well, I guess I’ve had my first summer vacation away from blogging. I took a break to go save the world as an intern with Bread for the World, as we all know how much of a global difference interns at nonprofits can make. My self-evaluation form for Fuller’s Field Education office questioned what I thought my biggest accomplishment was in this internship. I’d have to say the full-scale initiation of world peace, though my supervisor reminds me that there were a few others involved in that endeavor. I also baked some fine chocolate chip cookies that I shared with my officemates, which may be a close second to global shalom.

In all seriousness, it was a challenging internship and it forced me to gather and put to good use the theological and biblical resources I have developed in seminary and as an undergrad. I developed Bible studies related to issues of hunger and poverty. I will be giving a sermon at a church in the area about some of my reflections. I will be recording a few podcasts next month on the issues. Along the way, I was able to learn a great deal about policymaking and how politicking goes for these sorts of things, and how a nonprofit advocacy group responds to such challenges. I see this internship as the beginning of a deeper engagement with political advocacy, particularly with the mission of Bread for the World. I hope that even as I move towards an academic career in New Testament and early Christianity, I will always stay connected to present-day issues of justice. And someday, if I reach my dream of being an educator and mentor to undergraduate students, I hope to be able to connect them to the same kinds of opportunities for social engagement and evaluation. Even the Bible majors!

All of this said, I do actually miss my time in the classroom and I’m looking forward to getting back into gear this Fall. I will be a teaching assistant for Jim Butler, focusing mostly on grading Hebrew translations and word studies for an exegesis class on Jeremiah. As for my own education, I will be taking a couple classes with Marianne Meye Thompson and gleaning from her wisdom on John, with an exegesis course on the Gospel of John as well as a doctoral seminar on Johannine theology. It will be nice to balance out working on the more heavy theological concerns in Johannine literature with the Greek of John’s Gospel.

And to add to the drama (if you consider any of this to be drama), I will of course begin sending out those doctoral applications starting in November. The application due dates mostly span November to January. I will probably find out what schools have decided about me by late March-early April. I’m going to minimize the amount I publish of my thoughts on application strategy, at least while I’m going through the process, but I can tell you the basics. I will be going for schools that I consider top-class, including some institutions with great reputations but are less often considered by “New Testament” applicants (and some are not quite as competitive as others). I feel that all of these schools are a “good fit” for me (i.e., I’m not going for the brand name schools just for the heck of it). If I strike out with those, I will apply to a few Th.M. programs to prepare myself as a scholar one more year and then try another round of applications the next year.