During my senior year at George Fox, one of my professors asked me what my plans were after graduation. In my mind there was no doubt – I needed to go to seminary to learn to be a pastor. But which seminary? The only Quaker seminary was in Indiana, and its curriculum was woefully short on Bible courses. I was told that it leaned liberal, and I certainly did not – so I never seriously considered that school. Many conservative Friends ministerial students – those who, like me, believed in the authority of the Bible and the need for salvation through Jesus – went to Western Evangelical Seminary in Portland. I visited over there and was not especially impressed. Western Baptist Seminary was not an option; it was a good school, but I’d had enough of Baptists.

So we started looking into other possibilities. Fuller was especially attractive; it was in Pasadena, near my family; it had a big course catalog full of Bible classes; and it had a great reputation for high-quality academics.

I applied to Fuller and was accepted into the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) program, which required three years of full-time class work but no thesis. They offered a summer Hebrew study – 12 credit hours of Hebrew in 8 weeks – and I decided to kick-start my seminary training with that.

We moved from Oregon to California during the first week of July 1974, sharing a U-Haul van with Karla, Karen’s sister, and her husband Barry. He was finished with his degree at Western Baptist Seminary in Portland and had decided to take on another graduate program at UCLA. Our stuff was in the back of the van – we didn’t have much – so they dropped us off in Pasadena before heading to their new place in Santa Monica. It was over 100° in Pasadena as we moved in to one of the apartments on campus for married students. Like Whittier, Pasadena has hills to the north, but you couldn’t see them on the day we moved in. The smog was that thick. I was quite jealous of Barry and Karla getting to go to Santa Monica.

I had no trouble learning New Testament Greek in college, so I expected Old Testament Hebrew to be just as easy – but it wasn’t. I really struggled. We had 4 hours of class every day, Monday though Friday. Each day contained the material for one week of class on the regular schedule, and each evening had a week’s worth of homework. That way they could finish all 12 credit hours in 8 weeks. I never worked so hard in my life. And Hebrew was difficult to learn. I began to think I’d made the wrong decision about school. I went to see a professor who was in the role of Dean of Students for the summer. I told him that I was thinking maybe I should drop out, that I wasn’t seminary material. He asked me some questions about my college experience, then assured me that I’d be fine. “This is the hardest course you will ever take here,” he said. “You’ll do well in your other classes.” And he was right. I did not get an A in Hebrew, but I passed, and was glad when it was over. My other courses were challenging, but I could do them, and I was learning a lot, very quickly, over the next four years that we were there.

In the fall of 1974 I enrolled in a regular full-time course load for beginning M.Div. students. As I was going through the registration process, it of course required a visit to the Business Office to deal with financial matters. Karen had found a job by this time and was prepared to continue supporting us through her work, but it was not something that she enjoyed. I knew I’d have to find work too and was hoping to find a job on campus. I must have expected to get a student loan to pay my tuition at seminary. But as I went through the line, I was approached by a man who turned out to be the financial VP for the seminary. He said, “I see on your application that you have experience in audiovisual media.” I told him that he was right. He told me that he had an opening for a half-time person in that role; another student had been doing it but would have to quit the job due to academic pressure. Would I be interested? It would pay a small salary but also provide a partial tuition remission. I took that job without any hesitation – it was a gift from God.

The student who had previously done the audiovisual job was quite helpful – he showed me everything I needed to know – and when he learned that we didn’t have a car he even gave me a key to his VW bug to use whenever I needed it! I had a little office down in the library basement and lots of old, poor-quality equipment. It turned out to be an interesting job – more about that in a later chapter.

For the fall quarter I enrolled in an Introductory course that was required for all new students. One of the things we learned was that there was a shockingly high divorce rate among married seminary students. The professor gave quite a bit of advice about how to keep your marriage together while in seminary. I was very thankful for this class, and Karen and I stayed together!