Student Interview: David Hackenbracht
Foreword by Martha Lynn Coon
The AYAVA House experience invites young adults committed to a year of dedicated service in Austin to explore a connection between their desire to serve with a life of faith. For some, it will be an investigation of something new, for some on-going, and for some a return to traditions that provided nurture in their past, but to which they return with new questions, challenges, and curiosity.
Austin Seminary offers many opportunities for transformative experiences, including opportunities to move from the AYAVA program into life on campus as a matriculating student. David Hackenbracht (MAMP/Junior), a Dallas, Texas, native, felt called to follow this path while simultaneously working on his bachelor's degree.
"I was working for AmeriCorps as a tutor in the ACE program (AmeriCorps' English and Spanish literacy-tutoring program that supports students, families, and the community.), and I wanted to do a second year in Austin. AYAVA was listed as a housing opportunity for us, so I wanted to check it out. I started my bachelor's at Texas A&M in psychology and switched to political science, but none of it really fit for me. I just loved the idea of getting some kind of theological education while I worked on finishing my bachelor's degree."
Hackenbracht made an immediate impact in the AYAVA program and program coordinator Martha Lynn Coon feels his exploration of his faith is perfect for that program and Austin Seminary as a whole.
"David embodies so much about the spirit of what AYAVA House is and can offer to a young adult," said Coon. "The son of Baptist missionaries, David spent his year in community bringing deep questions to himself and the group, questions that stemmed from both his love of quantum physics and his sincere investigation of atheism. During his year, David became more comfortable with these questions, discovering that holding such questions did not cut him off from the faith experiences of his youth. Rather, through his own faithfulness to the asking and the faithfulness of God to whom we turn, he discovered a sense of access to the seasoned wisdom of his Christian tradition and an ability to integrate himself and his questions in his relationship with Christ and the church."
Now enrolled as a student in Austin Seminary's Master of Arts in Ministry Practice (MAMP) degree program, he appreciates the wisdom he gained in the AYAVA House.
"My AYAVA experience gave me some insight into what it's like to live in an intentional community," David explained. "For the most part, this means learning that things don't always work out the way you plan them to, and that it's okay regardless. There's a ton more that I learned from our group meetings. Different people have different expectations and desires; there's almost always a way to talk to people you disagree with to find some kind of common ground; listening is crucially important. Most of these sound like common knowledge, but it's really my worldly experience of these "cliches" that solidify them as real for me. I've also learned a lot at Austin Seminary. There are similar levels of community interaction, but the seclusion of a room helps to mitigate inter-roommate conflicts. There's also a lot of theology and history and ethics in there somewhere."
Asked about his plans after Seminary, David gave an answer that offers insight into his philosophy of faith, saying, "Part of me rebels against the idea of predicting the future in general—none of us can, so why do we try? So many people end up doing something completely different than they thought they'd be doing, so why not embrace that and go with the flow? Let God handle the future. Anyway, I anticipate that I'll be teaching in some way. I've done that in the past, the past repeats itself, and I enjoy it. I've been told I'd be a good science teacher so maybe I'll do that."
