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 […]
Early in my professional career, I faced my first significant post-college decision – to leave a known career path in consulting with a Big 4 accounting firm or to choose a far-less-clear path with a relatively young, but fast-growing health insurance company. The choice was daunting for a mid-twenty-year-old, and I remember struggling with the […]
In Matthew 28, Jesus says to his followers: “make disciples of allnations…teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” What makes a disciple? And what commands do disciples observe In Luke 14 great crowds were following Jesus – what leader wouldn’t want that! –but Jesus tells them that no one can be his disciple […]
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 […]
For academics, there always seem to be too few hours in the day. We wake up to phone alerts and incoming email chimes. We eat while working at our desks and rushing to activities. We frantically try to balance the demands of our professional and personal lives, and the line between them blurs. We must […]
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 […]
