Back to School

Just like Rodney Dangerfield, I went back to school yesterday! I've been wanting to  head over to UCONN since I moved back to Connecticut,and yesterday I had two excuses opportunities to visit. First I visited church planter and pastor, Ben Dubow over at at St. Paul's Collegiate Church at Storrs. They only planted a few months before we did, but they are having great success reaching out to the students at UCONN. It's always fun talking shop with church planters; especially in a land where they are few and far between.
After a tour of their facility and lunch at an Italian deli, I headed over to UCONN to meet with Nicholas, a chemistry professor at UCONN who is a part of our church because I wanted to see what he did (as he says it's much more than delivering lectures). Nicholas, gave me a lab tour and a great overview about the breakthroughs his research team is making on the area of microwave chemistry (nothing to do with what setting to cook popcorn on...). Speaking of corn, one very exciting thing they are working on is making biodiesel fuel more of a viable option. Many debate the efficiency of making such a fuel, but Nicholas and crew are confident that through bleeding edge research that they are doing, biodiesel fuels (created from new or recycled vegetable oil) will be an effective and efficient alternative to our oil addiction. Nicholas showed he was  great teacher by taking complex ideas and simplifying them to where even I could understand them and by intentionally not bogging me down with complex formulas and jargon that would have gone way over my head (us pastors could take a few cues from him).
I had a great time meeting with both guys. And on a personal note, my burden intensified for the many college students here in our own backyard. I think it's time for Calvary Fellowship to go back to school and think about how we can reach out more effectively to the next generation...

Comments

[Nicholas]

Thanks for the kind write-up Bill. We not only enjoy what we do here but also hope that, through the chemistry we discover, we can make an impact on the way processes of the future are operated.

Bleeding edge research sound painful to me though - but I know what you mean!!

Nicholas