A good friend and respected colleague of mine, Dr. Patricia Massengale, recently asked me to do a presentation for a graduate class she was teaching for the college where she works as an adjunct Professor. Though she is retiring from teaching public school (where I had the privilege of working with her for 6 years), she will continue to bless the field education as she now moves on in her life to become a full professor in the Department of Education.. I was honored to be asked to teach this class for her, and I hope it was helpful for her students who are all teachers. After my presentation we had a great discussion. As part of this discussion I wanted them to know how important I felt th
Sometimes you work on writing something and you know it just isn’t right and then suddenly you find the words. Unfortunately sometimes they are someone else’s words and you cannot take credit! It is incredibly frustrating. 😊 The good news is it gives me time to work on my words some more while also sharing these moving words with you. "God of the Movements and Martyrs" was written in honor of the 85th anniversary of the North Carolina Council of Churches. The Council was formed in 1935 to address racial injustice, and continues to work for peace, justice, equity, and inclusion. The hymn honors those whose faith has called them to work for peace and justice, past, present, and future, and in
I recently was on a Zoom call. Before mid-March I had never started any story like that but now it seems I start conversations like that all the time. This week’s Midweek Musing is indeed based on rich conversation over a Zoom call. It was a conversation with people I mostly do not know. This Zoom Meeting is intended to be a safe space where folks can check in on one another and remind each other that we are not alone, even if we are sometimes lonely in our current environment. I really hope this meeting will continue even after science discovers a treatment or vaccine. Most of these folks are like me and my family—they have followed CDC guidelines for best practices regarding social distanc
Isaiah 43:16-21 This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I for