DTS Alumni: What's Your Enduring Lesson? Here are my top five . . .

I have a special affection for IHOP restaurants. Well, maybe just the one behind the seminary on Gaston Avenue.

You remember that as a student, you didn’t eat out a lot—unless it was eating sandwiches out on the lawn. In my first summer at DTS, I made it my personal mission to welcome all the new women students. Being a woman student was a new thing then. We were about 20 strong in number that first year and doubled in strength by the next.

And so it was in the front parking lot of Swissland that I met new single woman student, JoAnn Hummel on a hot day in August 1986. She was unloading her car from the long road trip from Pittsburgh. While helping her carry in some boxes, I learned it was her birthday the next day.

“We have to celebrate! Let’s go out for breakfast!” We met the next morning in the back of Swissland to walk over the parking lots to IHOP. Looking back, you must know this wasn’t an easy thing for me to treat to breakfast. I could barely afford one meal out, much less two. So, I let JoAnn order first, knowing I could adjust my order per what I knew I had in my pocket to pay.

She ordered light, so I ordered pancakes.  Everything was going well in our forming friendship until a minor disaster hit. When I poured the maple syrup on my stack, the lid loosened and the whole pitcher of syrup flooded my pancakes.

The panic in my heart was that I couldn’t afford another stack so I thought I’d just have to make this work. I nonchalantly spooned almost all the stray syrup back into the pitcher, acting like nothing was unusual.  Wide-eyed my new friend stared incredulously at the chunks of pancakes floating in the syrup bottle. (I know, I know, I could have just asked for another stack—what can I tell you?--I froze.)

I smile just thinking about that goofy scene. Such were the days when our hearts were so focused on the prize of that seminary degree that it didn’t matter what the day-to-day challenges were. I see now that in addition to the instruction that went on in AC1 and AC2, as they were called then, a great deal of learning happened on the paths from the classrooms to the student center to the apartments and dorms to the library and back.

The academic instruction built a firm foundation for ministry, but I wonder if the lessons learned as we did life together were the necessary complement to shape a generation of godly servants.

By God’s design, my lessons were different than yours, but my guess is that we share some similar patterns. For just a minute, walk down memory lane with me and consider what lessons you learned along the way.

1.     I learned that honest to goodness enthusiasm trumps criticism every time. You’re not surprised that I learned that from Reg Grant. His love for each student and for all things good and pure and beautiful taught everyone in his charge how to be a better communicator of the gospel. He made everyone feel like a rock star and in so doing, modeled to the class (who knew better) how much more effective kindness is as a teacher. I learned the truth of Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.”

2.     I learned that grace can wear many faces. On the first day of my seminary life, Kenn Gangel asked me—a woman—to lead the class in prayer. I stood and I think I said the Pledge of Allegiance instead. On that day when the school was divided about whether women should even be allowed on campus and other professors rebelled at the idea of a woman even being in their classroom, Dr. Gangel kindly let his position be public.  Also from that first day, he crafted disciplined writers and teachers from “a motley group of neophytes” (his words).  And he surprised us all with his unique flavor of mercy that taught us “as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also” (2 Corinthians 8:7).

3.     I learned the power of multiplication from Dottie Connor Bingham. As she ministered one by one, how many lives did Dottie impact? Yours, too? And most all of us have fruitful ministries of multiplication today.  I picture on some wall in heaven there is painted “Dottie’s family tree,” picturing her tribe of men and women she’s touched, and then branching out, all the people they are impacting, and so on. All from this one, faithful woman who with shepherding grace is teaching a generation that to those who believe, He is precious (1 Peter 2:7).

4.     I learned that faith grows “along the way.”  In keeping with Deuteronomy 6 tradition, we connect the dots of faith and practice as we go about life. I saw that happening over dinner with my Swissland neighbors, Jeff and Gerri Miller who have lived this style of ministry with students as a way of life in Indonesia and the Philippians for three decades. And from friend Mark Chalemin, then pope of Lincoln dorm, who told of night-long debates as young theologians worked out their questions. I’ve seen it carried through my friends’ lives through brain tumors and miscarriages, and countless simple decisions in ministry that need walking out. We were “trained in the way we should go…so even when we are old we do not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6)

5.     I learned that authenticity is contagious. Of course we think of Prof Hendricks here. Don’t you miss him? We remember his speech on the first day of any class, “If I don’t show up for class, check the morgue because that’s the only thing that will keep me from being with you. And when you hear that I’m gone, don’t shed a tear because you’re looking at one of the most fulfilled people on the planet.” Watching Prof’s love for Jesus, Jeanne, and his students (in that order) made us all better people. Following him, as he followed Christ (1 Cor 11:1) is an eternal curriculum.

These are just my fast five, but I could list 105 of the names and lessons of dear people and the instruction they impressed on my heart and my character.  Perhaps your name is on my list—many of you would never know it. We were so busy keeping beach balls in the air—and loving every minute of it—that we didn’t realize how our lives of blossoming faith, and decisions of quiet character were rubbing off on each other.

BTW—whoever it was who left a $50 bill in my mailbox with an encouraging note, I want you to know what an impact your generosity had on my life. Thanks for paying it forward. I’ve tried to do the same.

Last February, I was in Chaing Mai, Thailand on a speaking engagement. Walking out of the hotel lobby, I heard my name called over the din of foreign music. A lovely, blonde woman walked toward me with a smile. “Barb, is that you?” And suddenly I was back on the sidewalks of seminary with my friend Beth Shaum, one of the other 20 women from that first year.  We chatted like schoolgirls and hugged and laughed and squealed and hugged again. A preview of heaven.

Because it’s true. The days may seem long, but the years are short.  I realized that again at Prof’s funeral as we celebrated God’s faithfulness in this one life. There we were, connected by this one man, or this one school, or this one faith, doing the best we can to live a life that pleases God. Despite the failures we’ve all experienced, and the trials that threaten to shipwreck us, we’re learning that our heart’s desire is found in following the One who is the center of it all, our very life and breath, the Lord Jesus Christ.

On a visit back in Dallas recently, I sat in a room with a thousand other people, being ministered to by my friend, JoAnn.  Yes, my IHOP buddy. With great heart and skill, she delivered a single truth from God’s Word that connected people like electricity to each other and to God.  My eyes glistened with emotion and the people seated beside me must have thought God was speaking to my heart.

And they would be right. He whispered to me in His kind, father-tone, “My daughters! Just look at you. You studied well years ago, now you’re serving well. But you’re not done yet. Keep going. Keep your heart focused on the prize. Don’t be discouraged, I am with you. I will strength you, I will uphold you with My right hand.”

In the crucible or in the calm, may you too be strengthened today for the work that still needs to be done. My fellow alumni, God be with you till we meet again . . .

Till we meet, till we meet, Till we meet at Jesus' feet,

Till we meet, till we meet, God be with you till we meet again.

Barb Peil, MACE 1987, serves as Vice President of Communications at Thru the Bible, and lives in southern California. Her recent book, One on One: 100 Days with Jesus, was first imagined in DTS chapel 30+ years ago and it took her this long to get it written.