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 […]
When I started my Ph.D. program, I overlapped briefly with a grad student named Sam, the only Christian in the department. He had overlapped with another Christian named Sean. This department is in one of the most “anti-Christian” places in the US, but Sam assured me no one would give me trouble for being a […]
I was anxious when our oldest child left for college. I was concerned about the challenges to her Christian faith that she would encounter. Midway through her first semester, she called home upset. She had an assignment that required her to attend an off-campus event whose goals conflicted with our faith. It was a required […]
In the fall of 2022, I had the good fortune of traveling to Poland and Ukraine for a short–term mission trip. I went with my good friends, Dennis and Kasia Beck, who worked with Cru in Poland during the communist years. I took the trip in part because I was on sabbatical then. But I […]
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” – Philippians 1:6 (NLT) When I was a graduate student studying genetics, I was afraid to identify myself as a Christian. Several faculty and many fellow […]
