My Masters in Divinity

Hey folk,

I'm excited to share the news that I've been accepted to Wesley Seminary in Washington DC to pursue a Masters in Divinity. This may come to a surprise to many of you and to others you've seen this coming for a long time.

For quite a while now I've been trying to combine my faith and my music. Six months ago I was appointed as a local lay pastor on a two church charge near my home in Hampshire County, West Virginia and that has opened doors that I didn't even know existed beforehand. I'm on the deacon path in the United Methodist Church and am looking to learn more about what I can do with music as ministry and with my ministry in general. I've wanted to do something like this for a long time and the planets finally aligned for me.

On the encouragement of the school, I've decided to go ahead and start my education this (spring) semester. I feel like I've been fast-tracked a bit in this process and this is where the ask comes in. Between the school and my district I'm on an 80% scholarship, but since I was able to start so quickly, I haven't been able to secure scholarships to cover that last 20% and expenses for books, travel etc. By next semester I should be able to cover all this. I'm hoping that my community, family and friends might help me to patch in this last little bit for this semester so that I can keep focusing on teaching and learning and won't have to find additional employment to pick up the slack.

I'm grateful for everyone who has encouraged and supported me on this journey and I'm excited to see where this new path leads me. I can feel my music, my creativity and my faith growing in a big way and I can't wait to see what contributions to those around me this will turn into.

Thanks to everyone and here we go!