I graduated college last December, and I can honestly say that I have missed it in the past few months as I have been waiting and preparing to go to France. I've always been a studious person, and for the most part, I've enjoyed my education since Kindergarten. It wasn't just about feeling cool because I was learning the things that my siblings new (literature, calculus, the events of various wars, etc.), I just really enjoyed learning. It helps that I have loved nearly every single one of my teachers too. In fact, my mom was worried on my last day of 3rd grade because she thought I'd cry because I wouldn't see my teacher for three months. In my 13 years of public education and 4 years in a private college, there have been a handful of teachers who have influenced my life in profound ways.
In high school, I had two of the best French teachers I could ever imagine. They both had fantastic patience for their students who took a little while longer to understand what they were teaching, and they had so many fun ideas to make us practice our French. In fact, I still use some of their methods and songs when I am teaching French to high schoolers and college students. These were the two teachers who also took a deep interest in my college choices and on many occasions talked to me during lunch hours to help me figure out what I wanted to study, what to do with my life, and what kind of a person I wanted to be. There are a number of things about me that stem from those conversation I had with M. Laird and Mme. Mores.
In college, I had the chance to have even deeper relationships with my professors. During my Capstone course for Biblical and Theological Studies,
Scot McKnight had us write shorter papers throughout the semester defining how we have changed throughout our time at school. The last of these papers asked us to describe how we have changed personally since we came to college. For me, the majority of this paper was dedicated to the influence my professors had had on me. I started off with Business Management as my primary major, but very quickly realized business was not my strong point, seeing as the class gave me anxiety attacks. I was enrolled in Introduction to the Bible that semester, and I was taught by a new Bible professor, Mary Veeneman. When I told her that I wanted to write my first paper on the differing theories of the Johannine writings, she asked "Have you considered bring a Bible major? I think you would really like it." With that, I enrolled in two more BTS courses for the Spring semester, taught by Joel Willitts and Scot McKnight. To say that these professors are tough is a grave understatement. They both assigned a great deal of reading, gave us exams, papers, and reading quizzes on a weekly basis. Even in the midst of that though, I knew that Mary was right and I really did love those classes. During the first or second week of my next semester in school, I officially became a BTS major and started it off with two theology classes, one taught by Mary again, and one taught by one of the most brilliant men I've ever had the honor to learn from, Brad Nassif. In both of these classes, I had to define what it is that I believed about different components of the faith and give Scriptural evidence for why I believed it. In the spring that year, Scot was once more my professor and taught me more about the man Jesus was and is than I had ever learned.
At the end of that semester,
Joel Willitts sent a number of BTS students an e-mail encouraging us to think about taking a class with him the following Spring. This wasn't just any class though; it was an on-sight study of Paul and John in Greece and Turkey. I ended up taking that class the semester after I studied in France, along with my first Old Testament class with the one and only Boaz Johnson. This man is very dedicated to teaching the Old Testament and how it influenced the New Testament and still impacts our daily lives. This is not his primary goal in class though; Boaz loves his students and wants us to take each class we take and make it personal. He wants to know his students so that he can better pray for them and teach them. As for that class Joel taught, well, I could fill up an entire blog about how that class influenced me. I'll just say that there is no way I would be who I am or have such an excitement for returning to France if it had not been for Joel, Justin Hardin (the other professor on the trip), and the other students who traveled with me.
I wasn't just influenced by the BTS professors during college. There are two other professors who taught me during the exact months that I needed to learn from them. Kurt Peterson, for example, taught the History of the Church when I was having honest struggles with understanding other Christians. During the first class, he told us "Ask questions. Always ask questions." He wasn't referring to misunderstanding an assignment or the syllabus, but rather understanding the views and beliefs of other people as well as defining who you really are. The other professor who changed my life forever was a Philosophy professor who taught the class "Intentional Christian Community", Greg Clark. I had little interest in community at that point, and Greg daily reenforced how vital community is to survive. He brought out class to a Christian Community every week and because of those people, I fell in love with community once more.
There is no doubt in my mind that I am going back to France because of the teaching I have had from these amazing scholars. They have taught me more about what it means to walk in the footsteps of Christ and in the love and grace of God the Father to the corners of the Earth than I ever thought possible. They showed me what living your faith actually looks like and how the smallest words can change a person forever.
