"Wrinkles in Time:" Releasing our Children to the Journey Father Knew They Would Take

John 20:31

But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name

When your hopes and dreams change colors and directions, even disappear, it’s like a wrinkle in time (Madeline L'Engle) when you are transported to a place you never thought you'd be.

Pieces of life disappear and there are new joinings. Can you get back what was lost? This posting will be an honest confession, one some of you may not want to read. For me what happened touched the very heart of who I was (see blog posting from 12-23-2014 below). I knew something deep was breaking to pry me loose from my expectations, and that it would take time and endurance for me to see and cooperate with what Father was doing in my son, and in me—and to learn to breathe in His Spirit in a new way.

Here’s what happened: As Jenny entered her first year at Covenant College, Jonathan was in his senior year. He was the Bagpipe editor, the school newspaper, and a well respected friend and leader. However, in the fall, he was expelled for a violation of their conduct code. But, that part of the story is his to tell, not mine. When he called to tell us, our hearts broke with his and we wept together. Jonathan wrote me an email recently recounting that "this was likely the most traumatic event in my life, by far.” We were heartbroken for him and disturbed by the lack of clarity and consistency in how the college handled both the situation and him. But we welcomed him home, wanting to love him and walk with him as he sorted through what to do next.

This event was not expected, but rather a “wrinkle in time” that moved us onto the heart transplant list for all of us with hurting hearts. We needed a “bridge” to the other side, for him and for ourselves.

We still had many good friends in Oklahoma, especially one man named Richard McAfee, who was a good listener and gifted counselor. We all thought Jonathan could be helped by a new environment and new people to love him, listen to him and help. A family there opened their home and gave him a bedroom. He soon got jobs ... he went through several different ones over the next few years, and settled into life in Oklahoma City. After delivering pizza one night he was robbed and mugged. Then there was a incident with a bike accident involving one of his host's children that could have been handled better. This was the second time in a year that Jonathan felt betrayed by those he trusted.

Finally, there was the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma City that killed 168 and injured 600. Jonathan was working at one of the newspapers when the Oklahoma City bombing took place. He had the job of interviewing some of the survivors with children. All these things left him ready to move back home. With us at Ohio University then, it seemed like the best place for him to be next, a place where he could finish his BA, live at home with room and board provided, be surrounded by a loving family, and a wonderful dog named Bear. But that’s ahead of this story.

Meanwhile ... my heart was churning and crying out. I didn’t understand what Father was doing. It was easy at times to feel guilty, that perhaps this was our fault as imperfect parents (indeed we were). Yet perhaps this was what I needed to become less of a “son (daughter) of thunder” (Mark 3:14-17) and more a representative of His love. So I started, deeply, to let go of my expectations for my kids (and others too). They are not mine to manage just to love.

I began to lean back into the journey He knew they would take. I’m still leaning and learning this today. And I know that He is still faithful, always good, that He began a good work in each of them and will complete it. His Father’s heart and love never stops ... for any reason. I may not live to see it, but I am living to see them loved as much as I can, with all my heart. It is all I can do. Daily I offer them back to Him who first thought of them, made them, and called them into this life. They are His, always deeply loved by our Heavenly Father through Christ Jesus. And I am so thankful for both of them.

Songs for this season: Change My Heart, Oh God and There is None Like You. Here are the words to the second one. Our grandsons just learned it and we now sing it around the dinner table.

There is none like You. No one else can touch my heart like you do.
I could search for all eternity long, and find there is none like You.

Statement of truth and prayer for this season: Philippians 1:8-10:

God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus (yes, I seek to long for my children with the affection of Christ Jesus). And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.

Many Memories--Just Discovered Pics of Students I Have Taught from Oklahoma to Kentucky

Going through my 50-year-old suitcase full of memories, I found an envelope marked "Kids." When I opened it I found dozens and dozens of photos of students I have taught over they years--kids I have loved and still do. Some of them are even reading this blog post and now have their own kids!

First Photos--Oklahoma

Starting out in Oklahoma, the top left is the K-1 class I taught for Covenant Life School in Oklahoma City. The rest were all taken with kids I have taught at New Covenant Academy in Norman, Oklahoma. I love them all and smile to realize how many I still know and love. Grace and Joseph Wu, Daniel and David Hazelton--you were really buddies then and now friends for life.

The next photos involved things we studied in all the classes I have taught. You may remember Father Alphabet and all his 26 kids. Studing the character qualities that were those of Jesus was a daily part of our classes, in stories, verses and song. I can still sing them, can you?

Second Photos--Lexington, Kentucky

These next photos below are wonderful memories of much loved students and things we did together. The top left is me teaching kids the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds so they could learn how the sounds of plurals differ in cats and dogs (s and z sounds). The second photo is just the class being silly!

The middle photos were reenactments of books the classes were reading for our year long curriculum. My 2nd graders were reading the Little House Books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and here the boys were acting out Farmer Boy. The other crew, 3rd graders, were reading the Narnia Series, by C.S Lewis, and it looks like they were acting out Prince Caspian or was it The Silver Chair? We had some amazing discussions! We used these books to learn all subject areas, including reading, writing, spelling, math, science, social studies, art, even PE and music and cooking!

The bottom left picture is very special. A doctor's wife had given birth to quadruplets. However, two of them were greatly at risk of not living. They had asked people to pray. Our classesat NCA decided to pray and ask Jesus to spare the life of all four kids. They prayed daily and rigorously before the Lord, and all four survived. When the doctor and his family heard about this class, they brought the quads in for the class to see the kids they prayed for. Later, this doctor, Dr. Blevins, was the doctor who did reconstructive surgery on Jenny's nose. It was a gift he gave back. Isn't God good?

The bottom right photos is of our Christmas celebration, also very special. Every year we made a birthday cake for Jesus and sang Happy Birthday to him with great joy.  Then we shared a piece of the cake. We saved one piece of cake for Jesus and we all took one small bite of His, since we were His body. We also brought gifts of food to give to those poorer than us.

Books were very important in my class. We read aloud every day from many different genres. And then I supervised all the students up through grade 8 authoring their own books. The last year we entered them in several contests, both local and national. Amazingly, they won numerous awards. Locally they took almost all the awards in the city, and several in the state. Two of them won top ten award books in Landmark's annual "Written and Illustrated by" book awards for students--Jonathan DeHaan in fourth grade and Daniel Hazelton in third grade. They did so well. I hope they are still writing today! I know one is, because she has written me lengthy letters every year. Emily Sallee (Owen) now has 9 kids of her own and is raising her own group of readers and writers.

Then there was the amazing Vicki Mitchell who helped out in my classroom and was a huge support in any way I needed.She is the one who organized the surprise party for me after my last year of teaching these kids. She is also in the photo with Sarah, and husband David, doing her research presentation on cats.....and little brothers who came along to help! I still miss her.

The last class I taught, a second-third combination of 25 students, became very special. We did so many fun things together, in class and out. At the end of the year I presented each child with a framed award recognizing the different character traits I saw growing in their lives (I included that photo twice--must be important!). Connie Jirak, Jack's mom and one of my amazing teaching assistants was there to see that help.  I see Bettie Ann Monroe, Benjamin's mom, in the photo next to Connie too. 

Then, remarkably before Facebook, we had some class reunions where we got together just to be together and catch up. You can see how they have grown. And now they each have their own destinies and families and loved ones. I love hearing from them and hope many of them get to see these memories.

I have been so blessed with amazing students over the years, from kindergarten through university. God's goodness is evident in each one and in my heart and life.

Miracles and Honors: Significant People and Events that Shaped Our World

How do you start to tell of significant people and events that shaped your world? I will tell you about the years of 1988-1991 and those events that shook our world and helped clarify our lives for the future. Besides the Berlin wall being taken down, more than a million people demonstrated in Tiannamen Square and the the Hubble telescope was launched. For a nice summary of world events going back to 1970--the year Jonathan was born, check out World Events.

You've heard about the dissertation friends and the loyal, courageous daughter, but first, I just uncovered some letters written to dear friends Martin and Diedre Bobgan (they saved ALL our letters and newsletters and just gave them to us last year!) about the dissertation event. I told you about when I was asked who wrote my latest submission? In a letter written in April, 1991, this is what I wrote after they asked me to explain who had written this:

When they asked me to explain, I told them that people had been praying for me. One of the committee members said, "I'm not a religious person and I don't believe in divine intervention in a dissertation program, but if there was, this would be a miracle." This hurt deeply because I felt like I had failed the Lord, that these people would judge my character to be so deceitful. Needless to say, much more prayer was offered up and they apparently decided to stop the accusations and never brought it up again.

In conversations afterwards, one co-chair said several times that,

....she had never seen a defense go so well. She said I was poised in my presentation (I was so nervous I had diarrhea all morning, and it was really the grace of God she saw but did not recognize), and that never had she seen in a defense with no major revisions. Within a week the final copies were turned into the graduate school office. And now they want to turn it in for a national student research award. None of this makes human sense to me, but the Lord is King and Ruler of the Universe.

Another major event that shook our world was when Bill's mom had a brain anuerism and within 15 minutes had gone into the Presence of the Lord. This was a big loss for all of us, especially Bill's dad. After 54 years of marriage it was a shock, covered by grace and daily adjustments. It happened just a couple of weeks after they had come to visit us. It also happened when I was being given my comps (oral exams). As Jonathan wrote, we both passed with flying colors. However, her colors are much, much more brilliant! Here are reflections written by Jonathan and myself about this amazing woman, Mary Carter Leal (Grandson Joshua Carter Lin is named after her). It was printed in the Covenant College student newspaper.

Another major event and memory involved our two children, who worked over one summer delivering newspapers in the early morning. When our anniversary arrived, they honored us by presenting us with a 3 night, 4 day trip to Cancun, Mexico, hotel and flight included. It was a lovely trip. The beaches were gorgeous, the hotel was classical Mexican with beautiful tile work, and close by was one of the best taquerias Bill had ever been to.

What an amazing surprise. When we told them they should keep the money for college, they refused. A friend encouraged us to allow them to create this memory, so we did. You can see us below in one professional shot and then another enjoying time together.

For those of you who enjoy details, below you'll find our annual newsletters for three years. There's even a quiz in the second one and recipes for life in the last one!

1988-1989

1989-1990

1990-1991

A Woman with Much Courage: Our Amazing Daughter

While my last blog post chronicled the dissertation years, many other significant events happened. This post features our amazing daughter, a great support to me then and now, in so many ways.

During these years I was watching my one and only daughter, Jenny Lynn, become a young woman. These years were very significant for her. One of the first things that happened during these years was Jenny's decision to follow Jesus through baptism. Dow and Bill both listened to her words and her heart.

The most "shapely" thing included two nose surgeries, by Dr. Blevins, that took bone from her hip to strengthen her nose. (She gave her OK with showing you this photo of her in the hospital.) She was very brave. She always has been. She still is. We are grateful for her strong will to push through difficult times.

After high school graduation at 16 (photos below), Jenny took off for Oklahoma to live with good friends Mike and Jonee McKee for the school year. Mike, a lawyer with much experience, had agreed to apprentice Jenny in his office in Norman, Oklahoma, to see if she wanted to pursue a career in law (she decided against that choice after learning all it meant). Meanwhile, at home, Jenny learned sewing skills from wife Jonee and got to help care for their three sons, Kurt, Frederick, and Stephen--all still amazing in different ways.

After this year, Jenny followed in her brother's footsteps to Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia. This was the year Jonathan left school, in his senior year--another story for another post.

One summer she and we hosted an international student, a French girl living in Burkina Faso. En-route to visit a horse farm, Jenny had more than a little fender bender. A kind couple took them from the crash scene to their home and horse farm to make phone calls and tend to Jenny's head cuts. Jenny had to have a few stitches at a local and hospital. We gave thanks to God that nothing serious resulted for either of them. They later got to tour the couple's farm instead of the one they were heading for when the accident happened.

Here are a few photos of Jenny with the family who loves her so very much. During these years, Muffy, our poodle pup of ten years, died quite suddenly. Bill, Jonathan and Jenny went out at Christmas and brought home a cocker spaniel pup for my Christmas present. I named him Lev Vygotsky, after a famous educator (he's in my dissertation!). We called him "Lev" for short. He was a beautiful dog that we had for several years.

Jenny continued her studies at Covenant College through her senior year, earning a BA in History with minor in English, and making lifelong friends. Her next years brought fresh adventures involving group home work and moving to Belgium. Tales for another time!

Surrounded by Committed Friends: Survival During the Dissertation Years

“Surrounded by committed friends” is how I would describe our final three years in Lexington. Let me describe them now. May you who read this be blessed with friends such as I have had.

After leaving teaching and the children whom I loved so much, I, with the help and support of my husband and family, jumped into a doctoral program that was both frightening and full of God’s grace. The most frightening part was statistics. God’s grace came in the person of good friend Mary Fleming, PhD in statistics, who tutored and helped me learn--and actually get an A in all those courses. But, of course, today all I can do is use it to understand stats that I read and not actually do them. Back then, we did a lot the old fashioned way with paper and pencil and sometimes plain old calculators. We also used SPSS and Excel to figure means and standard deviations and produce correlations with charts and graphs.

The most fun part was all the courses I got to take in children’s literature with Anne McConnell who had served on both Newbery and Caledcott committees. I gained a new love of children's books through her courses. Then as a grad assistant over the years, I got to teach a few courses and make sure the reading clinic ran smoothly. Barb Stinnett became another good friend during these days as we worked together in courses and in clinic and as she helped me code the children's responses for inter-rater reliability for the dissertation.

Being an eager beaver, I finished all my courses and what I thought was a good dissertation in two years. I did something rather unusual too. I decided I wanted to have co-chairs of my committee to draw on the expertise of two amazing people well recognized in their professions: Dr. Connie Bridge and Dr. Linda Levstik. When I presented the dissertation to the committee, including Dr. Peter Winograd, they very kindly told me that it needed a lot of work, and to plan another year. My heart sank, but I yielded to this new turn in the road.

I worked hard at revising all five chapters. Every time I revised a chapter, I gave it to each of the co-directors of the dissertation (and to the other committee members when I needed their input). They reviewed it, made their comments, and returned to me to make changes. UNFORTUNATELY, they each had different advice for what needed to be changed. So I would change something that would satisfy one, but not the other.

FORTUNATELY after many rewrites, my chairs realized we needed to meet together to discuss changes. During this time, I was learning to become a good writer (writing for academia is very different than all the narrative work I had previously written and published). BUT during one meeting, unexpectedly one of them (FORTUNATELY I don't remember which one) asked me, “Who helped you rewrite this? It’s too good to be yours.” I broke down in tears and told them that I wrote it. But it felt close to being charged with fraud. Besides, by this time my dear husband and friends were getting tired of hearing about this ongoing writing project.

Here’s where the "friend that sticks closer than a brother" part plays the all important role. During our first years in Lexington, I had joined a faithful group of ladies who were meeting weekly to pray for Paul and Rebecca Petrie (as I mentioned in a previous blog post, they had moved to Brussels). Now, during this difficult time in my journey, they graciously began to pray earnestly for me too. I felt so very humbled. Below is a photo of them at my graduation party: Patricia, Judy and Catherine.

So what does it mean to be a friend? DEAR, dear friend Catherine began not just to pray, but to take time off from her own work to walk the halls of UK outside my committee meeting rooms to pray for me on site. She wrote her prayers out, and I still have and treasure them. She laid down her life for me in a way I'd never before experienced. I wrote that she "was a stabilizing influence that cannot be measured in human terms." Very soon after this, God began to turn things around and I made progress and could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But there was still the defense of the dissertation that loomed on the horizon. Of course, I knew both Bill and Catherine would be there praying. The morning of the defense as I was praying, I asked God for 5 smooth stones, like David had, to slay the giant named Dissertation. And He quietly said, “This is not the giant. It is only the bear you got to practice on.” I knew then that He had prepared me well and I had a wonderful discussion with my committee during the defense. Soon after this, I was walking down the aisle in cap and gown to receive my diploma.

For those of you interested in the research (otherwise, jump to the next paragraph!), my dissertation examined children’s responses to three types of text during peer group discussions. I read three different stories (fiction, non-fiction and informational storybook) to classes in grades 1, 3, and 5. I recorded their peer group conversations at three different points, transcribed them, and then analyzed each of the thousands of comments in six different ways. You really don’t want to know the details! But, it yielded published articles in three highly-recognized peer-reviewed journals of literacy. If you do want to know more, just ask; I’ll send you the links!

The day of graduation was full of fun and a party at our house. Here are some of the key players celebrating with me. From left (include my two chairs who didn't give up on me): Dr. Connie Bridge, friend Melinda, Dr. Linda Levstik, me, and in front is friend Barb Stinnett. Jonathan supervised the yummies and we all enjoyed the cake.

When all was said and done, Bill surprised me with a big party where everyone was asked to bring the ugliest earrings they could find. Here are a few samples.

 

  

I am so grateful to God for the time spent at the University of Kentucky, for the multitudes of people who helped in so many ways. Without the cheerleaders of husband, kids, friends, and pastor Dow Robinson, I would have lost courage. The dissertation itself was dedicated "to the children, whom I carry on my heart." Here's the diploma that my husband had engraved in wood for me.

Many other events were woven into these years ... all records of God's goodness and faithfulness above all else. Jesus is my Friend that has never let me go, who still holds it all together by the Word of His Power. Here's one of my favorite songs -- Above All by Michael W. Smith

Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what you're worth

Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way.....

Change My Heart, O God: Life in the Swirl of Lexington, Kentucky

"Change and loss, it must be realized, are two different things. Loss takes something away from life. Change adds something to it." Joan D. Chittister

We had experienced so much loss in the last ten years. Now, during our first three years in Lexington, 1985-1988, we experienced so much change, so much was added in. Life was full of treasured people, and challenging experiences.

Our much-loved kids were growing and changing so quickly during their teen years.They did normal stuff like take gymnastic classes and do camps during the summer. Jenny did a drama camp one summer. We still joke and call her our "drama queen." We even caught them studying sometimes! Both were and continue to be very creative individuals.

We bought a home near my sister Nancy and family, our friends for life Mary Fleming and Dow and Lois Robinson. All our houses were no more than a block or two from each other! We left our ten acres of land and got acres of blessings instead -- more than we could imagine. Plus we still had our cute toy poodle Muffy, here in the arms of Mary Fleming.

And we discovered that it snowed more in Lexington than in Norman. Fun for all! One thing that wasn't much fun was working to find a fix for Jenny's orthodontic challenges, But she was a trooper with whatever came her way.

When it wasn't snowing, Bill enjoyed making a huge garden in our back yard. We all enjoyed the produce it gave us--so did all our friends and neighbors!

Jonathan graduated from our church's school, NCA, New Covenant Academy, in 1987. He was the only senior guy along with 7 beautiful young ladies. Both kids were excellent students and had moved ahead one grade over the course of several years, so graduated a year early. Jonathan decided after graduation he would begin his college career at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, receiving a scholarship to help out. We helped him move in to his dorm, went home and found our nest half empty. Jenny continued to be a joy and big help in many ways.

I continued teaching the amazing kids I told you about. Meanwhile the Lord was changing me and teaching me to "speak words more boldly to the children and teach them from the Spirit, not the curriculum." This is something I follow to this day. During these years, God blessed my life and the lives of the children as we all learned to listen to and follow Him. He also let me teach more and more teachers from around the country and world, something I loved.

When our third year wrapped up, I also had finished my masters program in literacy. During the last year, I was invited to move on to a doctoral program at UK and was offered a job as a graduate assistant. This was a VERY hard decision, to leave the kids I so loved, but God's instructions were very clear. It was with tears I told the kids about the new plans (I had taught some of them for at least three grades, 1st-3rd grades). We cried together. I still remember sitting on my teaching stool with tears running down my face.

These years at the school were full of blessing for me, and challenges. How much I needed God to change my heart to meet the swirl that happened. The principal's job and leadership kept changing every year. After the first year, Tim Mitchell, a wise and loving principal, left for another calling in life. After our second year, the principal was not an educator and not rehired. Instead of a principal, the next year Mary Fleming and I got to work as co-Master Teachers to train children and teachers. She had responsibility for working with grades 7-12 and I with K-6. It was an amazing partnership. We prayed together every morning before school. The school board served as principal with Harold Hodgkins as administrator. However, after three years, the school board decided that the school would close down and all 200 kids would need to find new school homes the next year. This was a shock for all.

By the time the school was permanently closed, Jonathan had already finished his freshman year of college, but Jenny was only a junior and would need a new school for her senior year. She chose to complete her last year of high school studies at a magnet school in Lexington public schools that focused on Japanese. She went to Henry Clay in the morning and transferred to Bryan Station in the afternoon for the magnet school. She studied Japanese and International Studies and is still in touch with some of her classmates on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Bill was working hard. While back in Norman he had started working for SAS Institute, a company that makes data analytics software, as a contract instructor. This continued in Lexington and took him around the country. As that began to taper off he took a short-term position with the University of Kentucky Research Foundation to provide a tracking system for animal subject experiments. When that was complete the Foundation wanted him to come on full time but Bill was reluctant and declined. Shortly thereafter a position came open for a federal contractor, CDSI, that was providing support to the federal Office of Surface Mines and the state counterpart. Bill was hired on and in a few months was managing the office. When the 3-year contract came to an end, it was extended with other contractors taking over for short periods. The nice thing was that each contractor wanted to retain staff so by the time a new contract was awarded salaries had gone up markedly.

30 years ago this August I wrote, "How grateful I am for a loving husband, though Sunday he had a word in his heart that his greatest work of service would be his death and the way in which he dies. I trust the Lord for many years together before that!" And so he has given us many years. Our lives are in His hands.

Our church family was amazing, creative and lively! Many great talent nights were enjoyed. Here you see Nancy Kennedy, Claire Sawyer and Lois Robinson all on the trampoline singing their hearts out. They called themselves the Happy Heartbeats. Bill had his singing debut during this event. He dressed up as Kenny Rogers to sing a Dolly Parton song. Now Bill has three notes and they're all off-key. Barb Munz, a voice with dulcet tones, was his partner as Dolly. Together they sang a variation on Islands in the Stream:

Here we go traveling from place to place
Looking for church where they speak of grace
Don't want to hear about tithing or law words or nothin', uh uh!

Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me
To another world
And we rely on each other, ah ha
And we rely on each other, ah ha

(As a footnote, Bill and Barb practiced so much that he eventually started singing on key. This was bad. Really bad. But by performance time he was back to his off-key voice and all was well.)




Vacations often included Grandma and Grandpa Leal. We loved spending Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa and Bill's sister Mary Ellen and their growing family in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And sometimes we got to spend it with my sister and family too.



Summer vacations usually included renting a cabin near a lake, or driving to see important places, like Kentucky's caves or Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. You can see three of us in front of his log cabin birthplace. I think I told you in an early blog that he is my great, great, great.....uncle.

.

There are lots of beautiful places in Kentucky and nearby Tennessee. We tried to visit as many as we could. Goofing off at home with Paul and Ana Hills was also fun.



We love our family, still do, and give thanks for each other and our two amazing kids!

The GRE vs. "Go and I Will Be With You!"

In early spring of 1985 a threefold word came together. I wrote, “In the last two weeks it is coming into focus that I need to go back to school for a graduate program and degree. Bill (husband), Dow (pastor) and Tim (principal) all came to me independently and told me they thought graduate school was next for me.” Part of my heart was full of fear that I’d never pass the GRE exam to get in to University of Kentucky (after all, I was was almost 40 years old!), but the other part believed I needed to enlarge my understanding of reading as an area God wanted to give me more revelation on. And the Lord told me, “Go and I will be with you. If you aren’t to be there, you will know; and if you are, you will ‘feel my pleasure as you run.’ Let that be your clue and your assurance. I will be with you. You are not going alone.”

So I took the GRE and wrote that it was “devastating. It was hard and I blanked out. The questions didn’t make sense except for math, which is the opposite of what I expected. Sunday in worship the Lord made me aware that the deposit in me and His gifting is not dependent on the GRE or any tests, Just His Spirit. Not by might, or by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.”


I cried for half an hour after the tests, sure I had not passed. But pass I did and was invited to join the graduate program in reading in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky. My first advisor was Dr. Mary Shake, a wonderful mentor, taking a newbie like me and helping integrate me into the academic world.

After being accepted at UK, I was offered a graduate assistant job, but I wrote that “I can’t do this if I teach, which is where I need to be for now.” So I continued teaching for another two years while completing my master’s degree in reading education.

During this time I was also invited to come teach on reading at a Christian education conference being held in Lexington. It was an awesome time and God blessed my sharing with teachers I’d never met before. It was a confirmation that I was to go on and learn more. I also began to get invitations from around the country, and even to England and Canada, to come teach their teachers. God was opening up more doors than I ever imagined.


But grad school was tough. I had always loved writing, but writing for academia is another whole ball game. Learning to write this way was not easy. Friend Dawn Kotapish said recently what I felt and why I'm writing this blog: I was "one fated to digest life slowly, only by writing about it first." But grad school wouldn't let that be the only writing I would do.

Another unexpected word from the Lord came that I didn’t understand. Remember, we had just moved from Oklahoma a year or two ago? The word came in a dream, “Your next move will be to Mobile.” There was no explanation and no apprehension in the word and even excitement I didn’t understand. Little did I know how that word would come to pass over five years later. “We shared the word with Dow and Lois and they didn’t laugh, but seriously received it. It is God who moves us on in His purposes and time.”


While God was bringing people in to the church, He was also sending others out. Paul Petrie, pastor of the church, announced his call to Europe and Africa and how they planned to move from Lexington to Brussels, Belgium. While it was a time of celebration in God’s call on him and Rebecca and the kids, it was also about to be a huge change for the church. I would lose fellow teacher and dear friend Judy McCullough, Rebecca's sister, who would be moving to Europe with them. Below are a couple pics I took of Paul, Rebecca, with John Meadows, and this sending-out event.