Buoyed by the Body

I am amazed at how my relationships with other Christian faculty – in the College of Engineering, on the larger campus, and now beyond – have encouraged me.

It started with my tenure and promotion process, an experience that was less than ideal. In fact, it mostly felt like an enormous suffering.

So, in the midst of it, I was completely surprised when a committee member saw me in the hallway and said, “Psalm 37:23 says, ‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.’”

This bold word was deeply shepherding to me.

The seed sprouted into a regular meeting between the two of us, and eventually blossomed into a decade-long fellowship among a half dozen professors in the College of Engineering.

As our engineering fellowship grew, I’ll never forget the sense I had of the Lord’s presence when, after praying together, I opened my eyes and looked around at the six of us: from Ghana, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico, and myself (Japanese-German).

I was convinced that only Jesus Christ could produce such oneness among diverse faculty like us, and He had brought us together to be His testimony on campus.

More recently, through Faculty Commons, my vision has been expanded by a larger network of Christian faculty on my campus as we work to make Christ known, specifically by hosting an all-campus weekly prayer walk. Students have commented that praying for the campus alongside faculty has been one of the highlights of their time at Sacramento State. Certainly, it’s a highlight for me.

This summer, the Lord expanded my vision beyond Sacramento State.

As I attended a one-week training at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to support Christian students, I slipped away one afternoon with a former graduate student for a 30-minute tour of the renowned Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory. As we entered, my student asked, “Should we take off our name badges?” I replied, ”Let’s keep them on. Maybe our host (professor) will notice that it says ‘Love Prevails.’”

As we were introduced, our host noticed the badge, and an amazing 45-minute dialogue ensued. We learned that he gathers more than a dozen Christian engineering professors in a weekly fellowship in their college!

The highlight of our laboratory tour was when our host called over a fellow Christian professor who passionately answered my question, “How do you reach students on campus?”

I was so encouraged and challenged to hear how he and other professors minister to students and faculty. I captured some of it on this video.

My newfound Christian colleague at the University of Illinois called our visit “a divine appointment,” and we are planning a Zoom fellowship this fall with faculty between our respective campuses.

Connecting regularly with faculty and students in the college, across campus, and now halfway across the country, testify, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”