out on good behavior

Well, my CPE experience at Metro State Prison is officially over. Enough people have joked that they must have let me out on good behavior, I figured it deserved to be the title for this final blog post. Anyway, last Wednesday was my last day at the prison, and then on Thursday and Friday we did one last IPR and our final evaluations. It was sad to leave the women at the prison and sad to leave my CPE group and supervisor, but I always knew it was going to come to an end eventually.

In a few weeks I'll be starting a whole new chapter of my life -- a year-long internship at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Rochester, MN. Like CPE, this internship is a part of my schooling at Luther Seminary. It will be a lot of firsts for me -- first time being in a pastor role to see if this is really what I want to do, first time living in an apartment and being on my own, first time cooking for myself and being a "grownup." Because of this whole new experience, I'm considering starting a blog for that. I probably wouldn't update it as often as I did this one, but I think it would be beneficial to remember my experience. I definitely am glad I wrote this summer blog, because it's nice to go back and remember everything that happened and how I felt and how I've changed. We'll see if I feel up to doing it for a year.

I really enjoyed my experience as a prison chaplain. I learned a lot about the prison, and I learned a lot about myself. I'm definitely interested in possible future prison ministry involvement. For sure it would be interesting to visit a prison in Minnesota and compare and contrast it to Metro. All in all, I had an incredible experience, one I won't forget. Thank you to all of you who have taken time to read my blog, and for those of you who have left comments -- it's always nice to know people are reading this thing. I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of the summer -- I know I will!