Michèle Phoenix returns to the podcast to share about her new book, Pieces of Purple, based on personal experience and years of ministry with children of missionaries. This is a must-listen for parents, caregivers, teachers, and friends of Third Culture Kids (TCKs)!

• Find Michèle’s book, Pieces of Purple, here!
• “Even parents who have lived cross-culturally for thirty or forty years will never fully understand in an embodied way what it means to have grown up with all of these cultural and experiential and all of these other inputs shaping who you are.”
• “Being a TCK is indescribable. It is hovering darkness; it is glimmering light. May we embrace the wonderful as we wrestle with the hard. And may the God who cherishes His purple people reach through the layers that make us so unique to touch the parts that need His love and free us up to flourish.”
• “We need to tell our stories so that they know that there’s an after picture and that this is not the end. We can be the embodiment of hope to them. We can point to other people [...] we know who have been through challenges like this and who have found their footing again.”
• “I actually believe that our greatest strength is in mostly belonging, not fully belonging. If we can mostly belong in multiple places, we become bridge builders and change makers.”
• “I don’t think we realize how much just living in proximity to us is teaching the TCKs in our care about life and faith and holding the tension that we all feel.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Getting up earlier
• Heather: Daily devotional from the Worship Initiative
• Michèle: Learning about attachment theory and baking sourdough bread

Weekly Spotlight: Schools serving Third Culture Kids (TCKs)

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

In this bonus episode, Keith Carey shares about his work with Joshua Project, defining unreached people groups, and reaching the unreached through prayer.

• Learn more about Joshua Project!
• Learn more about the 10/40 Window here.
• “We’re praying according to God’s will because He wants every one of those tribes, tongues, and nations to be reached.”
• Perspectives on the World Christian Movement

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Painting bedrooms in his house
• Heather: Vegetables growing from seed 
• Keith: The Holy Spirit and cross-country running through desert scenery

Weekly Spotlight: 10/40 Window and the SEND Campaign

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

What does it look like to wait with intentionality rather than apathy or impatience? For the final episode of season 5, co-hosts Heather and Keane are joined by TeachBeyond Executive Vice Presidents Howard Dueck and Brian Delamont as they reflect on Acts 1 and waiting with urgency.

• Acts 1:4-26
• “Waiting for something definitive is so much different than waiting for something that’s undefined.” -Brian Delamont
• “The fact that they are together in the waiting brings growth to one another in that time.” -Brian Delamont
• Romans 8:22-25
• Pursuing God’s Will Together by Ruth Haley Barton
• “It’s our transformation in the waiting that actually enables us to act with love and wisdom in the world. There’s no quick and easy way to get there.” -Brian Delamont
• “He has given me accountability and responsibility to be involved in some level of decision making, but the Kingdom does not hinge on the decision I’m about to make in that moment, and that helps right-size the decision for me.” -Brian Delamont
• “Our hope isn’t on ourselves or our plans, but it’s on the Lord.” -Howard Dueck
• The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Janet Hagberg and Robert Guelich
• “Take this period of waiting as a period of eager anticipation of what God [is] going to do next, as opposed to slipping into apathy or impatience or precipitated action. That’s where our whole soul is being shaped in that time.” -Howard Dueck
• “God is combusting something new within us.” -Howard Dueck
• “Rather than being stuck in this empty void of life, we have the opportunity to do what we can do because in God’s sovereignty, in His love and care for you, in His shepherding, you are right where you are and He’s right there with you.” -Brian Delamont
• “There’s this inner compulsion that builds with the waiting [...] and this growing our longing and capacity for the fullness of the Spirit so that then He can speak through us.” -Howard Dueck
• “Who you are wherever you are in that waiting stage is exactly what you’re going to be able to bring to wherever that other place may be.” -Brian Delamont
• “This is your time. Seep yourself in Scripture, in your craft that you’re learning, become all that you can be within your time of waiting. This is your apprenticeship.” -Howard Dueck
• Matthew 25:14-30

Complete our Season 5 survey here. Thanks for your feedback!

MONTH Reflection: What am I waiting for?

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Kids packing their own lunches
• Heather: Savannah Bananas baseball on streaming platforms
• Brian: Learning from and doing life with others in TeachBeyond
• Howard: Grandparenting

Weekly Spotlight: TeachBeyond Opportunity Board 

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Have you heard the term Fernweh (German “fern-vay”) or Wanderlust? What if God is calling us beyond a desire to explore far-off places? TeachBeyond member Natalie Kardol shares her story of longing to travel the world before she knew Jesus and longing to reach the world with the Gospel now that she does. Natalie’s story invites us to consider how we are using our gifts for God’s glory, whether at home or far away.

• “As long as I can think of, I always had this longing to go.”
• “When I became a Christian, I thought, ‘Wow, I wasted all these years traveling to these different cultures just because I wanted to be there, and I wasted it and wasn’t able to share Jesus [...] If I ever have a chance again to do anything like this, then I just want to do it for the Lord and share the Gospel with people around the world.’”
• “I don’t think it has really changed; I just didn’t know in my younger years that it was God’s calling on my heart.”
• Check out TeachBeyond’s Annual Report!
• “I translated the annual report, and that just opened my eyes, and I saw more and [thought], ‘Wow, this is an amazing organization.’”
• “God is working in the background.”
• “However fast or slow the process works, God is in charge. I cannot take credit for it; I am not fully responsible for the outcome of it.”
• “It’s an honor when you can connect people. It’s not about you.”
• “I don’t know what God is all of a sudden deciding to open up or not. I’ve learned by now that I cannot [...] plan what God has in store for me. It’s okay to not have it all figured out.”

Complete our Season 5 survey here. Thanks for your feedback!

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Better Internet
• Heather: Working from a friend’s house during a power outage
• Natalie: Ability to travel with her husband on his work trips

Weekly Spotlight: Short-Term Opportunities

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

How are you commemorating the end of the school year? What does it look like to reflect, celebrate, and anticipate rest? Listen in for inspiration from our Season 5 guests and a special reflection from Mark Giebink, TeachBeyond’s Director of Global Member Care.

• Ruth Chou Simons: Begin thinking now about how you will rest by learning something new.
• George Durance: Daniel 12:3
• Wyndy Corbin Reuschling: Do something different and get some rest.
• Heather Powers: It’s okay to admit that you’re tired and looking forward to a break.
• Brian Delamont: Do something accomplish in 15 minutes or less.
• Katy Boatman: How you spend your time outside of school is just as important as your time in school. A more rested you will be a more impactful teacher.
• Lori Neumann: Your impact is well beyond how it may feel!
• Ruth Mbennah: You have the opportunity to impact lives.
• Emmanuel Mbennah: 1 Corinthians 15:58
• Kevin McClintock: You are respected and loved more than you know.
• Mark Giebink: Keep a healthy doable pace, keep your eyes focused on God, and serve as an act of worship.
• Dave Totman: Philippians 1:6

Complete our Season 5 survey here. Thanks for your feedback!

Weekly Spotlight: Guided Journal

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Dr. Arianna Molloy shares hopeful and practical guidance as we seek to understand and live out our calling. Arianna defines key terms, unpacks professional research, and shares personal anecdotes to cast a vision for a healthy, reflective practice for flourishing in work and in relationship with the Caller.

• Healthy Calling by Dr. Arianna Molloy | Learn more from Arianna Molloy
• “As believers, our primary calling is to love God and love others, and to do that well in everything that we do.”
• “[God] is a personal, intimate designer, and He has equipped each of us with skill sets and passions.”
• Work as a calling: meaningful, identified Caller, skill set and passion, and pro-social
• “Passion alone is fine, but it makes you a great fan; passion and skill set make you a great employee.”
• “It becomes unhealthy when we confuse our relationship with the Caller with the calling, when we become so consumed with the calling that we forget about the people that we’re impacting on the other side.”
• “An unhealthy kind of calling in the workplace is not work as an expression of who I am, but work as the definition of who I am.”
• “The virtue of humility enacted [...] keeps us on the healthy calling path.”
• Micah 6:8
• “Deep shame comes from the idea that work is a calling, and when you don’t want to do it anymore, it’s not the task that you don’t want to do anymore, it’s that relational connection that feels severed [...] It’s not ‘I don’t like what I’m doing anymore, it’s I don’t know who I am anymore.’”
• Communication when stressed: withdrawal, reduced awareness, physical tension
• “Burnout doesn’t go away on its own, so we have to stop romanticizing pushing through.”
• Saundra Dalton-Smith’s Seven Types of Rest
• “Sabbath is not meant to just be for a day; we’re meant to live a Sabbath lifestyle. Sabbathing is turning our hearts and minds to the Lord, and remembering that all of the time all of the resources that we have are His, and we are not God and He is enough.”
• “Because calling is a process, even jobs that don’t feel exciting at all can teach you something about yourself.”
• Make Your Job a Calling by Bryan Dik and Ryan Duffy: task crafting, relational crafting, cognitive crafting
• “Calling is about relationship. Focus on and pursue the relationship, and the Lord will clarify your calling.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: The Power Broker by Robert Caro
• Heather: Yuka app
• Arianna: Voice messaging with her husband

Weekly Spotlight: Residence Life Positions

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Brian Delamont returns to the podcast as we explore the Biblical theme of creation, beginning in the garden of Eden and culminating in the city of God. Drawing from voices like Alistair McGrath and Albert Wolters, we consider what it means to live as faithful stewards of God’s world and reflect His image in our spheres of influence. From Genesis to Revelation, we are invited to participate in God’s ongoing work of transformation, restoration, and renewal.

• Listen to “Christ Be Magnified” by Cody Carnes
• Genesis 2:8-20
• Creation Regained by Albert Wolters 
• “God gives humanity the occupation of partnering with Him in order to bring this garden to the fullness that God envisions for it, to partner with God in transformation.”
• Revelation 22
• Psalm 19
• Romans 1:20
• “God’s revelation of Himself is so clearly seen that humanity is without excuse to know that there is a God and that He exists.”
• Romans 2:15
• “To be created in God’s image means that we have these echoes of God’s design and God’s intention innately connected and integrated into our humanness.”
• “God wants us and created us and designed us to live integrated lives. There’s nothing that doesn’t have His fingerprint on it.”
• “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’ - Abraham Kuyper
• “The Kingdom has come – it’s here – and yet there is more to come.”
• “When we bring care or compassion or provision to others, we’re making small transformations that point to the King and point to the Kingdom, both now and the Kingdom to come.”
• Creation by Alistair McGrath
• “Stewarding creation is an expression of love for God because God loves what He has created.”
• “We don’t worship nature or creation, but we esteem it.”
• The Parable of the Faithful Steward in Luke 12:42-48
• Jeremiah 29:4-7
• “When we try to make God look like us, we are miscreating, but when we understand that we are created in God’s image, it enables us to integrate our faith, our spirituality, with the physical world, because that’s the way He intended it from the very beginning, all the way through Scripture.”
• “Science is never going to threaten God. How we apply science can threaten our understanding.”
• “What evidences do I see in creation for Him? What evidences, like Psalm 19, do I see in the law of God?”
• Revelation 21:1-5
• “What started in a garden does become a city.”
• “In God’s city, there is life and light. The river that flowed in Eden now flows from the throne, and it’s the water of the river of life that is there for all nations. It’s part of our inheritance, it’s part of our sonship and daughtership with God.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:17

May Reflection: Am I actively engaging in God’s creation mandate for the part of the world that I’m able to influence? What sphere of influence has God given me? What am I stewarding?

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Water flavor drops
• Heather: Marking Bible passages while watching The Chosen 
• Brian: Springtime and tulips blooming

Weekly Spotlight: Bible Teacher Positions

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

On this Good Friday, author Justin Schell traces the mission of God as seen in the sacrifice of Christ – to reveal Himself to humanity so that we may know Him in the world He’s made – and calls the Church to witness to this Master who invites us to feast with Him.

• Learn more about Lausanne’s Younger Leaders Generation
• “Mission is one of those things in ministry and in Christianity that so easily can become about other things than about God.”
• “The mission of God is Him revealing Himself to humanity so that we might know Him in the world that He’s made.”
• “That’s our role as a Church – we are witnessing to the God who has made Himself known.”
• John 12:23-24, 31-32
• “You want to see the glory of God? You want to see the defeat of evil? Look at the cross.”
• “The cross is ground zero for the mission of God.”
• 2 Corinthians 2:14
• Romans 12
• “Our suffering isn’t a hindrance to the Gospel going forward; it’s actually the way it goes forward.”
• “God will use your fragrance, your sacrificed life, to bring men and women to know Him and to join the procession.”
• “There is no Christian ministry that isn’t cross-shaped. There is no such thing as true Christian ministry that’s not a dying to ourselves so that Christ might live through us.”
• “What will we do for Him if we will not feast with Him?” - Richard Sibbes
• “We can only serve the master for so long if we don’t actually enjoy Him.”
• “Don’t pray for perseverance, pray for joy, because you’re going to persevere in anything that you have joy in.”
• 2 Corinthians 4:17
• John 11
• “The Church is growing and being missional, even in the midst of their suffering.”
• “Christ is worth everything, and when things get hard, that’s a time to be on mission. We can be confident calling the world to Jesus, no matter what it costs, because it’s worth it.”
• “If you feel insignificant, you might finally be prepared to be someone who can witness to the all-sufficient God.”
• Luke 14
• “The Master’s heart is set on a feast.”
• “Do you know how good the Master is? Do you delight in Him? Do you think you could have a ministry of inviting people to a feast? If so, that’s what mission is.”
• “Whatever capacity you think you need, whatever brilliance you think you need to develop or that you’re missing – that’s not what you need. You need to know the heart of the master, and then with joy, go out and invite men and women [to] come [...] That kind of evangelism is Biblical evangelism.”
• “If you can spend your days allowing your heart to be warm in the sunlight of Jesus and then go out and invite people to enjoy Him with you, then you’re ready to be a missionary.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Sons learning to ride bicycles
• Heather: Microsoft Translator app
• Justin: Discovering a jazz radio station and sharing the book God Shines Forth 

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Humor is one way to build rapport with your students, but there’s more to it than just being the “fun teacher.” Kevin McClintock – better known as Mr. McTiktok – shares from his experiences as a teacher and social media influencer, underscoring the importance of consistent boundaries and connecting with your students.

• Follow Kevin: Instagram | TikTok
• “When the kids come into class and they know what’s expected of them inside the class, we can get stuff done. We still can be funny, but we have certain goals.”
• “When you are kind of an entertainer, there’s always going to be this ebb and flow. Sometimes you have to be more direct.”
• “If they know that there are boundaries, they feel safe. That’s when you get to be silly, that’s when you get to be goofy and it’s not a detriment to class.”
• “My advice is to not just throw in humor but to get to know the kids. You have to observe them, you have to know their interests.”
• “Consistency is the key. Consistently pouring into those kids, you will break down their barriers.”
• “Consistency and showing interest in your students [are] way more important than just being goofy.”
• “The one thing that I miss [about teaching] is the relationship with the kids.”
• “You can’t teach a subject to someone that’s not willing. When you know them, that’s when they’re going to want to learn.”
• “I’m not going to get them to try to love history, but they know that I love them.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Replacing older shirts
• Heather: Messaging with her cousin’s daughter
• Kevin: Getting diagnosed with ADHD

Weekly Spotlight: Social Studies positions

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

Are you moving internationally or returning to your passport country? Have a friend who will be relocating soon? Worlds Here and There is a guide for navigating this significant life transition. Listen in to hear from one of the creators of this resource, Paul Snider of MK2MK, as he shares about how this book came to be and the importance of processing the impacts of moving abroad, whether upcoming, recent past, or many years ago.

• Worlds Here and There: An Activity Book for International Transition
• MK2MK
• “How can we name and grieve the things that they’re losing [...] and look at what they’re entering into?”
• “Here and there is really about the magnitude of both places and naming all of the different parts of both places.”
• “It’s never too late to grieve a past transition.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Trading kids with neighbors during spring break
• Heather: Having her voice back after a cold
• Paul: Goodreads and reading more

Weekly Spotlight: Puebla Christian School

We’d love to hear from you! [email protected] Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/