It's Sunday night and I've been soundly beaten by my parents (i.e.: put in my place)in Scrabble and now finally put the finishing touches on this site design. It's not exactly how I wanted it to be and there are some kinks I may or may not find time to fix eventually (like that annoying little white line), but it's good enough for now.

For all the goodbyes I said today I feel like I might as well be gone already. So many of you dear brothers & sisters at FPC are on my heart tonight and I am thanking God for each one of you who have extended the love of the Body of Christ to me today. I'm thankful, too, for the time God's allowed me to spend among you the past year and a half. He has used you to teach me so much. I am humbled and honored to have worshipped in communion with you and to call you my friends. You are all so precious to me!

This site is for you--for you and for the scores of other people who I genuinely want to stay in touch with despite my escapade into the arctic zone: family (I have lots of that!), Knox folks, piano students, all of you from the many churches I've been involved with. (I delight in the vision I've gained of how huge and far-spread is the "one holy, catholic church.") Feel free to pass the site on to anyone who asks, "Have you heard from Susan lately? I haven't heard from her in two years! Is she still alive or did she freeze to death?"

My intention is to use this spot to write the "letters" I might have written to an email group, because the email group would have been far too large but also not large enough. My plan is to write at least every Sunday--a creative attempt at fellowship of the saints. So bookmark this page and check back as often as you wish. I'll try to keep my rambling concise, consistent, and not too frequent, and I'll save the obsessively technical ramblings about my studies for elsewhere. I'll certainly relay prayer requests and their answers and plenty of the stories, entertaining or otherwise, that are bound to arise in the weeks, months, and years to come.

In case any of you still don't have the details... I am leaving this week for Northfield, Minnesota (Twin Cities area) to begin studies at St. Olaf College, a Lutheran (but not Christian) liberal arts college with perhaps the best sacred music program in the country. I will be working on a Bachelor of Music in Theory & Composition, with an organ emphasis. I chose St. Olaf because of their organ professor, John Ferguson, who I am very much looking forward to studying with for the next four years. I will be living in the dorms at St. Olaf and for a change returning to the life of a full-time student. I'll be attending a wonderful, small PCA church in the area, Christ Presbyterian Church. I'll be spending almost every waking hour involved with some aspect of music. Other than that, there's not much else I know about what this endeavor holds. I do know one thing, though: The Lord has certainly called me here and lovingly, plainly paved the way and I am very excited to see what He has in store for me.

Please leave comments whenever you wish--they will arrive in my email inbox and give me an opportunity to communicate with you personally whether through a reply comment or through email.

Apologies that my first attempt at brevity failed. We'll see how this goes.