Inspiring Women Summer 2018

Working in education, your experience is paramount: if you’re going to teach teachers (who will
then use your curriculum with students), you have to not only be an expert but also be able to
communicate your expertise in a way that inspires others to try your ideas.
GETTING TO KNOW SHEILA
Tell us about an event in your life that made a
big difference and why it did. In May of 2013,
I went to Kenya to teach for Wayland Baptist
University for the first time. It was a huge
commitment at that point – a month away
from our booming (and all-consuming)
business. The courses were taught on a small
college campus in Kijabe, Kenya, about 40
miles (65 km) northwest of Nairobi. Kijabe has
a population of about 17,000 and is primarily
centered on the missionary hospital. There are
a handful of scattered (and tiny) shops. The
grocery store is the size of a small
convenience store here in Montpellier. There
was one restaurant – and it served the same
food as the college cafeteria. The road had
so many potholes and craters that the drive
from the highway to the town was a nauseainducing,
terrifying ride. There were no
entertainment options, and the internet was
spotty and agonizingly slow. So, when Kevin
and I weren’t teaching our classes, we had
plenty of time to think. Life basically stopped –
and it was in that stillness that we had time to
re-evaluate our lives and determine to make
a change. In that period of stillness, we
realized that we needed time – time to think,
to breathe, to walk, to be outside, and just to
be. And that’s what led us to Montpellier, a
move that has truly enriched our lives.
What personal motto do you live by and how
does it affect what you do/don’t do? My
personal motto is taken from a man of great
wisdom, Yoda: “Do or do not; there is no try.”
Once I set my mind to do something, I make it
happen. Often, that push “to do” has led me
to overcommit, but I find that in this period of
my life I’m more willing (and able) to “do not.”
What is your favorite word and why? One of
my favorite words is idiosyncratic. I know,
you’re probably (dubiously) thinking, “really?”
Yes, really! It’s one of the words I use when I’m
demonstrating the power of understanding
words and their roots. Idiosyncratic comes
from IDIO (peculiar) + SYN (together) + CRAS
(mixture). So, something idiosyncratic is
“peculiar to you.” And, we all have our
idiosyncrasies – our idiosyncrasies make each
of us unique and interesting, and together all
of our idiosyncrasies make this world a
fascinating place.
If you could meet one writer, dead or alive,
what question would you ask them and why?
Since my background includes biblical studies
and the study of Greek, I would love to meet
the Apostle Paul, the author of at least 13 of
the 27 New Testament books. I’m particularly
interested in Paul because his words have
had such an impact on Western culture and
civilization – and not all in a good way! I
would love to ask Paul why he included so
many seemingly anti-women statements (like
1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to
teach or to assume authority over a man; she
must be quiet.”) and how he would apply
such statements today. Clearly, such
statements need to be contextualized so they
can be properly understood – but in many
cases we are lacking a clear understanding
of the context since, with the Pauline letters,
we only have one side of a complex situation
(as situations involving groups of people
always are). I think the conversation would be
fascinating – and raise a few eyebrows too.
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