Life Update!

Hey Readers!

I apologize for being absent over the last few months. A LOT has happened in my life and things got really busy so some non-essential things got pushed to the back-burner of life. So, here is the life update for the past four or so months.

I finished my second semester at Phillips Theological Seminary taking Introduction to the New Testament, Introduction to Theological Writing, Christian History II, and Introduction to Christian Communities. It was a jam packed semester that included a trip to Tulsa for one of my classes. It was a great experience to finally meet some of the students and teachers in person that I’d interacted with in various classes last semester online. It was a jam packed semester with the most reading I think I have ever tried to accomplish in such a short time. Some of the books included The Fortress Commentary on the New Testament, The New Testament by Bart Ehrman, The World of the New Testament, The Story of Christianity Volume II, and a few others. Like I said, a lot of reading. After finishing all of my finals and papers I’m happy to say that I’ve passed all of my classes, and did quite a bit better in one than I was expecting. That was welcome news!

Since the last update, other parts of my life have also drastically changed. In April, I got married to Dwight Walls-Miller at First Christian Church in Katy, Texas. Dwight and I went on our first cruise the week after which was a sort of unplanned honeymoon. April 28th marked my last day at my teaching job in Houston to move to Columbus, Ohio. Dwight was blessed with a job at his former employer that moved all of the posistions to Columbus, Ohio last November. The day before we left, we added to a puppy to our family. She is a Chiweenie named Chloe. I’m very excited to get back into doing some dog training and hopefully dip my feet into that pool again! The decision to move was a difficult one for me. I left an amazing church family at FCC-Katy and left some amazing friends who were rocks when I was going through some very difficult times. Fortunately with modern technology, most of them are just a phone call or a text away! The move also benefits my family life as we’re much closer now to Michigan where I grew up and where most of my immediate family is. We’ve already been able to make a few trips to visit since living here as well!

Since being in Columbus, I’ve already accepted a position as a music director at Summit on 16th United Methodist Church. Summit is a reconciling, Open and Affirming church with a growing LGBT ministry that I’m hoping I can help with in addition to the musical aspect of my job. Our new church has been very open and welcoming and invited us to march with them in the Columbus Pride Parade that happened this past weekend. We’re slowly getting more and more acclimated to our new lives here in Ohio and look forward to the many people we will meet.

As of now, that is about it! I really condensed a lot of the more boring parts of the last four months because, let’s be honest, no one wants to read all of the details. Not even me!

I hope you all had a blessed start of your year!

Mike