Teaching Past and Future

Lisa preaching at Triangle Grace Church May 25th

“A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us…The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” Acts 16:4

“The crowd kept shouting, ‘Away with him!’”  Acts 21:36

As teaching moments go, it doesn’t get much better than encounters like Paul and Silas had with Lydia. She came ready and eager to learn, made so by the Lord himself. She listened intently and then responded with faith, opening her heart and her home in glad welcome of the good news that they brought.
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I’ve had a few tough teaching moments recently. It gives me perspective to remember that Paul, while he had gloriously successful teaching and preaching events, hit some really rough moments as well. In my case, no one tried to run me out of town, but in a recent week-long intensive course, there was a mismatch between what a few students in a class were hungry for and what I brought. Two students whose questions and comments were quite adversarial whispered to each other all of the first two days, and only reluctantly agreed to stop when I asked them to. At least five distinct technological challenges arose that were not solved until well after class should have begun on the first day, which left me visibly flustered. I had looked forward to being back in a classroom after teaching only via Zoom for the last year, so it was disappointing that it proved to be so very challenging. It did end on a really good note, for which I am grateful.

I'm learning to count both the “Lydia moments” and the “Away with him moments” as gifts. Sometimes we have to stretch ourselves to communicate in challenging contexts, and sometimes what we bring clearly meets a need. For the past several months, I have been meeting weekly via Zoom with a bright young woman in Ghana. She is a recipient of a Scholar Leaders scholarship to study at Duke Divinity School but was unable to get to the US last December due to a backlog in visa applications at the US embassy there. One of her specific hopes had been to study Greek, so I offered to give her Greek lessons once a week. Within weeks, she was reading passages from the book of John, and now she is making connections between Greek and English words that startle me and noting connections between sections of John’s gospel that delight me every week.

To all of you who teach, whether that is teaching your own children or a classroom full of unruly middle-schoolers or equipping a team with new skills in your workplace, we pray for grace and good humor, wisdom and love as you live out that vocation. We are so grateful fort hose of you who pray, give, and cheer us on as we teach and learn to teach even more effectively!

Please pray for:

• My young friend from Ghana who is yet again seeking a visa to belatedly begin her study at Duke this August. The US pause in processing international student visas adds uncertainty to plans. We’ve been so hopeful that this time, for sure, all would work out well—please join us in prayer for that.
• Rich’s travel to Malaysia, June 17—24. He will be leading a retreat for Methodist ministers from around West Malaysia, as well as connecting with some students he’s taught via Zoom this past year and with other friends from our time there. It’s a long but quick trip, and the 12-hour time change can be hard, so please pray that he has energy when he needs it and the ability to sleep at night.
• We are making plans to spend two weeks in India in August, and I hope to go from there to Malaysia for a gathering of doctoral students in early September.  

Our plan as we look ahead to 2026 is that we will leave the lovely home our church has graciously provided us and spend the first half of the new year teaching, coaching, and in other ways encouraging local churches and seminaries in India, Malaysia, and elsewhere. Let us know if you’d like to join us for a leg of the journey! Please pray as we begin to put the puzzle pieces of this journey into place this summer.  

With gratitude and love,
Lisa and Rich
PS: Lisa preached last week (May 25) and here is the link for her sermon on  the Bible and Theology, including her brief children’s sermon before she begins. Rich preached three weeks before that and here is the link for that sermon, with stories from India, on the topic of Worship.