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 […]
As another academic season winds to a close, may God provide you with great rest and cheer this break, and may you grow in joy over the next couple of weeks as you reflect on God’s gift of his Son. The gospels vary regarding the Christmas event, but “joy” resounds through these accounts. A sampling: […]
My name means “beaming light” in Chinese. I wonder what my parents had in mind for me when they named me. I know now what my heavenly Father had for me. His light was shining brightly on my life. He wants to use me for His glory. He wants to use my life as 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 […]
Lately, I have felt that God wants me to pray for my co-workers. I know that this should not have been a new idea – or practice – but for some reason, it never occurred to me. I pray for friends, family, world events, and (sometimes) my students – but I have never regularly prayed […]
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 […]
I gazed in disbelief at the numbers on the pharmacy display: 146 over 82. My doctor’s office visit reading of elevated blood pressure from a week before was correct after all. Busted! While taking on a departmental leadership role, one of the two program support staff vacated her position early in the spring semester. I […]
A Question Worth Asking: Am I Following Christ, or Merely a Good Christian? Likely, if you are reading this, you are a good, perhaps great, Christian. But I want to ask, “Are you and I truly following Christ?” What’s the difference? Think about how you and I can “check off the boxes” as a good […]
