There are many situations in which silence is the best response–indeed, often, “silence is golden!” But silence all the time, or at the wrong time, “speaks volumes,” though not the message we need to be sending. I often think of my students from rural Alabama whose Christian parents were terrific but only had a high […]
For several years before I retired as a professor and extension entomologist at Oklahoma State University, I was involved with the Faculty Commons ministry. As retirement approached, I believed God was calling me to become more active as a retiree and support the local faculty ministry in campus activities such as welcoming new OSU faculty, […]
I joined the Animal Science Department at the University of Missouri on June 1, 1980, and by the mid-1980s, I began wondering if I had missed God’s will for my life. Even though I had prayed a lot about whether I should enter graduate school, I couldn’t see the eternal value in the work I […]
It is Friday morning, 0730, to be specific. Sitting alone in a cold conference room in the College of Nursing, I wonder how many would attend this week’s prayer time. Each week, the attendance fluctuates. Besides me and my co-leader, there are three to six professors that may walk in the door. There were days […]
My first teaching experience came at Cal State Chico, an institution where I was surrounded by fellow Christians and many international students who presented consistent opportunities to invite students to our home and share our faith. When God brought my wife and me to Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), I envisioned much the same, but bigger, […]
“Lord, how do I fit into Your plan with Faculty Commons at this campus? How might You use me now as well as when I retire?” This was my question as I was doing an impromptu prayer walk on August 21, 2021. It was a week before our fall semester was to begin. My term […]
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue; And those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21 As an educator of 20+ years, I have experienced the impact of words on both myself and my students. Although I may not have always been cognizant of this impact, I was aware enough […]
In 2018, a dear colleague and I accompanied a group of nine students on a three-week visit to N’Zérékoré in the West African country of Guinea. This unforgettable experience, which included a week’s prior preparation and a final week of debriefing on campus, was part of a program that my university calls Mercer on Mission […]
When Bilbo Baggins asked if Gandalf guaranteed his safe return from the adventure Gandalf was offering to Bilbo, Gandalf replied, “No. And if you do (return), you will not be the same.” While short-term mission trips rarely involve the same level of peril as the reluctant hobbit faced, they certainly have transformative power. Neither my […]
When I tell people what I do for a living – “I teach communication and other professional skills to right-brained, analytic, and mostly introverted engineering students”—folks usually respond with something along these lines: “Wow. I never really thought about it, but that’s a skill they really need!” The next question, of course, is whether I […]
