My name is Cody Nielsen and I am a first year student here at Wesley.  I'm studying to receive my M. Div, in hopes of being ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church in the coming years.  My journey to Wesley has brought me halfway across the country from my home state of Iowa.  While the transition was a challenge, getting out of my element as well as opportunities here at Wesley helped significantly influence my decision to attend school in Washington, D.C.

I began this journey into West Virginia with a mind filled with notions of what to expect, an itinerary that make some points very clear, and yet in the end what I have gained is an entirely new view of the nature of the church. This view is firmly rooted in the Scriptures and speaks to the needs of today’s society, whether in the chicken farm land, the abandoned coal fields, the destroyed mountain tops, in the inner city, or far beyond the reaches of the Appalachia Mountains.

Hey everyone, my name is Elaine and I am the keeper of the Wesley blog. This past week was a busy one here at Wesley, and one that particularly affirms the engagement that we, as leaders of the church, have with our community and perhaps even the world. I thought I would take a little bit of time to let you know about those happenings now!

Hi, my name is Ben Roberts and I’m a first year MDiv student here at Wesley Theological Seminary.  I came to Wesley from my undergraduate studies at Greensboro College and my home in Oak Island, NC.  To say the least, school at Wesley and life in Washington, DC isn’t exactly the same as back home. But that’s exactly what I came for.

November 4, 2008 is coming - Election Day in our country for, most importantly, the President of the United States of America. It is an exciting time as we have new faces vying for the position of Commander-in-Chief. I am very excited indeed. As we get closer to our opportunity to have our say at the polls, my heart leaps with joy. Could it be? Could it be that history could be made?

Last week the admissions staff made our way down to the Mount Vernon Place (MVP) UMC in the heart of the district. MVP has a rich and varied history.  As we sat in the community room of MVP with construction and other city based commotion in the background, Chip shared with us a poem...

Hello! We are Joanna and Megan, a dynamic duo of first year roommates at Wesley Theological Seminary. Our humble abode is in Straughn Hall. We have just been getting settled in and have loved the entire experience so far. Neither of us knew what to expect when coming, but both have been equally surprised by the warmth of the entire community. We would like to share with you just a glimpse of our lives and our entire experience at Wesley so far.

As I headed to work on Monday morning, I couldn't help but marvel at the variety of things I had experienced over the course of only a weekend - from kayaking in a beautiful lake and hiking in the mountains to serving meals to homeless men and women in the inner city to standing on the White House lawn to watch the arrival of the president of Ghana.

This season 40 years ago changed my life. The memories remain strong, the fork in the road of my life vivid. I count it the end of my childhood, in many ways. It was August 1968 and I was 10 years old. The summer had already had some major highlights. I had cut my very long hair into the latest style, a pixie cut. Once snipped, I felt so naked. No more curtain of hair covering my back, no more protection.

Before that, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April and then Bobby Kennedy in June, had already awakened me from my childhood slumber. I had begun to pay greater attention to the wider world, a dawning awareness now that my life, so secure, so blessed, was not all the life there was.

Yoga and Systematics. Systematics and Yoga. That’s what I answered last year when anyone asked me what I was taking. Naturally, only one of these was offered at Wesley; I took yoga at Tranquil Space in Bethesda. By mentioning them both in the same breath, I was trying to get myself to take one as seriously as the other.