What is Marchauna doing, anyway?
From that experience, Medical Assistance & Missional Outreach, or MAMO, was born (get more of that story here). Recognizing that I did not have a clue how to do what God was calling me to do, I found a program about something called "development" (a discipline of which I was unaware) at Multnomah University, where Chris and I met. By God's grace, I was able to complete a Master of Arts in Global Development and Justice (MAGDJ) through Multnomah in December 2019.
(Me and Afuwah, the girl whose suffering ultimately inspired MAMO, in 2017.)
Through the MAGDJ program, I discovered a strong connection between true justice and the Bible/Great Commission. As a result, I began praying about the best way to share what I'd been learning. The Doctor of Ministry (DMin) in Contextual Leadership at Multnomah (details here) captured my attention. Chris and I both prayed about it and felt God was leading me to apply. Approval from our national director and an acceptance letter cemented that conclusion.
DMin programs require a Master of Divinity (MDiv) or its equivalent. Because of coursework completed through the MAGDJ program as well as credits from when I attended Multnomah the first time, I only needed 18 credits. By God's grace, my final MDiv requirements were completed this spring!
The DMin program is a four-year, applied theology program, with three years of coursework and one year set aside for writing a dissertation, though it can take longer. The difference between a D.Min. and Ph.D. is focus. While both degrees are "terminal" degrees, or the top degree you can earn in a particular topic, a Ph.D. is focused on researching new questions. Someone with a Ph.D. is a "subject matter expert" and can lecture or teach on that particular topic. Rather than identifying questions and digging into a particular topic, someone with a D.Min. is focused on looking at a particular problem and working to connect that problem with a solution.
My heart is to figure out how to help people who love Jesus learn to engage differently with our broken and desperate culture, specifically in areas of justice, poverty, and homelessness.
By God's grace, I survived the first year (my family did, too)!!
This is what our dining room looked like for the last few weeks of the first intensive, as I finished up a colossal paper.
Year Two begins on June 6, 2022 with two weeks in Portland. Those two weeks are called "intensives," because each week is intense, LOL. We will spend eight hours a day for a total of ten days (yes, that totals 80 hours of lecture, in two weeks), listening to guest lecturers speak on areas specifically related to what we're going to dig into over the next year.
After the two weeks in Portland, the next several months will be spent reading between 5000 to 6000 pages of required texts, plus more for research. Finally, in addition to smaller assignments and ongoing conversations with professors, experts, and classmates, I will write two 20-ish-page thesis papers synthesizing what I've learned, along with some practical application steps for moving forward. The process is both invigorating and more challenging than I ever could have imagined. It may sound crazy, but it is not unlike labor in many ways.
Although this educational journey started very unexpectedly, what I am learning has been incredible, with implications for how the Church can speak into issues like Critical Race Theory, racial injustice, economic injustice, homelessness, and the crisis in public education. In fact, I have the privilege of speaking at the upcoming Christian Family Home Educators 2022 Homeschool Conference at the end of this month, on these very issues! I am so excited; in spite of the brokenness and deceptive work of Satan, the hope from Jesus has never been more significant!! If you want to know more, please reach out. I'd love to share details.
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