Moored at Moore
Saturday, 17 April, 2004
On Thursday afternoon we drove up to Sydney to visit Moore College. Andrew greeted us upon our arrival and showed us his new quarters in John Chapman house. I thought I wouldn't be allowed inside, being a girl, but I was. Things looked pretty comfortable but apparently residents are discouraged from staying on over the break so Andrew was staying at home with his parents and commuting in every day. He had just handed in his first year essay so he looked quite relaxed. Everyone else, however, looked stressed. He asked us what we wanted to do. I asked if he could show us around the college because I wanted to get a sense of the place. I'd been there before but I hadn't see the whole thing. So Andrew gave us a bit of a guided tour—starting with the library (where I said hi to Chris of Chris and Marion; I played piano at their wedding about eight years ago), then the study rooms, the mail room, Moore Books (could spend hours and a lot of money in there!), the courtyard and the grapevine. We glimpsed some of the lecture theatres through the glass (one of them has been dubbed “The Kelvinator” because it's so cold that everyone puts their jumpers on inside even if it's sweltering outside) then spent a bit of time sitting under the grapevine chatting. Andrew prayed for us before we had to go and then saw us to the administration door. At Moore, you need to have an interview to pick up the application form and our interview was with the Vice Principal, Michael Hill, author of The How and Why of Love. He told us he went through college with Phillip Jensen. We were a bit intimidated by him because he was rather blunt and brisk, often cutting us off in what we were saying (which was okay with me because, usually, I was waffling anyway, but Ben takes his time to say things). It was nice having a joint interview because there were moments when the pressure was off and directed at Ben and vice versa. Michael asked us questions about such things as what we had studied at Uni, what ministries we were involved in at church, where we thought we were heading in the future, how we came to know Christ, what our understanding was of the gospel, what Christian books apart from the Bible had had a big impact on us, etc. (if you're interested in the answer to the latter question, my answer was: Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? by D.A. Carson and Knowing God by J.I. Packer. “Why these?” would take up a whole other blog post ... might do that in the future.) After he finished asking us questions, we got to ask him some questions. Ben was particularly interested in the advantages of doing the four-year Bachelor of Divinity over the three-year Bachelor of Theology. I discovered that Diploma of Bible and Missions students cannot go part-time which means my options are more limited than I thought they were; I'm now thinking that, should we be accepted, next year is probably best the year to commit to theological study. This prospect is scary: both of returning to study and neither of us earning any income ... we'll both have to go on Austudy and reduce our standard of living quite dramatically. Not that we have ever lived above our means—I think we live quite well—but it's making that extra sacrifice in ruling out ALL luxury items. I guess. I have no idea where we're going to live. At the end of the interview, I plucked up the courage to ask Michael Hill to sign my copy of The How and Why of Love—the one that George gave me. (Omar said afterwards that that was a clever ploy to get on Michael's good side. I must say I never thought of it that way; it's one of my idiosyncrasies that I don't let anyone write in my books except for the authors, and I always try to get the author to sign it if possible [with the exception of Greg and Amelia Clarke and One Flesh because that's a little embarrassing!!]) Michael looked surprised and pleased. He asked me if I'd read it so it was a good thing I had! I told him I hadn't understood one of the key chapters which may not have been a good thing but he did offer to give me some further reading if I so desired to follow up on that. Anyways, the college was being closed up for the day around the time that we left. We joined rush hour traffic out of the city and went to Omar and Jem's place to say hi (Jem asked after you, George!) Their sons have grown so much since we last saw them and they're both so cute! Then we drove to my mother's for her birthday dinner.Posted in:
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“...Knowing God by J.I. Packer. “Why these?” would take up a whole other blog post ... might do that in the future.)”
Please do
It’s a very good thing that you’ve read Michael Hill’s book! I didn’t finish reading it. Its definitely something that will take more than one reading for me.
Sounds like it went reasonably well. How was Jem & Omar and Noah & Caleb?
See separate email.
George
All looking very happy, George! They even walked us out to our car—it was so cute!
Omar has been accepted as an ordination candidate now. Jem says she’s enjoying Caleb and Noah’s ages at the moment. It’s nice that they now play with each other now.