L.I.F.E. Ministries International is led by a five member board with varying backgrounds and life experiences. You may know the L.I.F.E. Ministries' Leadership Team, but we want to introduce you to the board; today, we share an interview with Brockwell Bone, editor, and Board Member Nancy Yacher.
Brockwell: God has led many of us through educational, relational, and other experiences to make us who we are; what experiences do you feel have led you to serving on the Board at L.I.F.E. Ministries?
Nancy: My family pattern growing up was to keep family emotional secrets, meaning we could not speak of feeling, think about feelings, or feel--a familiar story. The religious way to handle questions was to be stoic, and the intellectual environment my father came from through his graduate training was effectively New Age. My own Christian conversion from "spirituality" to Christianity has shown me the amazing help toward emotional health that comes from living out the life of Christ in us.
Brockwell: God has blessed each of us with unique skills and passions; what do you feel is the gift or skill He wants you to use most while serving the ministry?
Nancy: Because my father was a college professor of English, my mother a teacher of French and Spanish, and my own experience as a Danforth Graduate Fellow during my graduate training in American civilization, I have been thinking about historical and social patterns of behavior as presented in stories and related to Christian groups. Following my grandmother's tradition, I enjoy hosting groups, helping people meet other people, and supporting students by being available off campus to connect and share interests when they come to me. These social connection skills and social behavior research allow me to understand the disconnection of addiction.
Brockwell: Nancy, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
Nancy: Reading has always been recreation for me, especially biographies, Christian experience literature, and mysteries. I enjoy cooking imaginatively with local, seasonal food, going to plays and concerts on campus. A walk in the state park at Clinton Lake near my home with friends or with my dog is always a pleasure. I also sing in the Lawrence Civic Choir for concerts and on performance trips. And most of all, being in touch with my two sons and their families; I am blessed with five grandchildren.
Brockwell: What other Boards and organizations have you served?
Nancy: I have served at Trinity In-Home Care in my community, as well as having been on the Board of the campus Episcopal center and organized or participated in conferences on the writings of C.S. Lewis as it relates to college curriculum. Lewis is considered the "foremost Christian apologist" of the 20th century, and presented the theology and philosophy of the Christian past in Western civilization. Being able to teach his works was God's way of letting me make amends for so much of the anti-Christian teaching in the humanities these days. And students DID want that material, despite my being challenged about it's being relevant or accurate or politically correct. I see that hunger as one of God's messages to both my family and the department that this, material, too, is important. I also have delivered papers at several academic conferences, including one at Cambridge University in England, at the C.S. Lewis Foundation Summer Institute.
Read at http://ping.fm/231eU
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