Transformed & Transformational

What do aviation, ESL, and illustration have in common? David Shimp shares his story of living with open hands and allowing God to use his various trainings and gifts to serve with TeachBeyond.

• Learn more about Beyond Borders!
• “I was always drawn to the idea of using what God’s given me to serve and love people.”
• “I think one of the greatest barriers might have been my own confidence and my own lack of clarity at times about what it is I could offer.”
• “I never could have dreamed that I would be doing art now in a missions setting.”
• “Their biographies are what people compare themselves to, and yet, very often it doesn’t turn out that way or doesn’t need to. It’s not necessarily how God works or leads.”
• “It’s really amazing to look back and see how God has led through challenges, but also how He has used us in so many ways we wouldn’t have expected to serve other people and to serve our teams that we’ve worked with.”
• “It’s so worth it when God calls you to do something and it’s affirmed in many different ways.”
• “Step out in faith, don’t worry too much about the future, live each day one at a time, and really lean into God. Live with open hands.”
• Prayer for Beyond Borders: That God would use the team as they serve displaced peoples in the midst of difficult circumstances

Check out other episodes related to David’s story: Episode 5: Telling Their Stories Episode 76: World Refugee Day Episode 80: Keep Going - A Calling Story

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Sweepy app
• Heather: Hanging macrame plant holder
• David: Men’s group at church and becoming an uncle

Weekly Spotlight: Communications Roles

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

What does it mean to process our thoughts, feelings, and experiences? How can we develop the practice of processing? Author and speaker Elizabeth Vahey Smith guides us through a conversation on this topic.

• Elizabeth Vahey Smith
• The Practice of Processing
• TCK Training
• “Sometimes people get this idea that they can learn this skill to help someone else and aren’t really thinking about their own needs. I think that it’s really important to have this practice of processing for oneself before trying to help other people through it.”
• “Processing can be applied to any emotion.”
• “The practice of processing is systematically understanding, sorting, and proceeding with emotions in a healthy way.”
• “When we start by processing the emotion that we’re feeling today, usually there is something in the past that led to that.”
• “There are so many different ways that you can personalize processing for every individual journey, but it starts with having a time and space to do it.”
• “TCKs in particular face so much grief during their childhoods.”

Want to learn more about Third Culture Kids? Check out Episode 22 and Episode 61!

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
• Heather: Chocolate-covered peanut butter pretzels
• Elizabeth: Leadership coaching with Jo Saxton

Weekly Spotlight: William Carey Academy

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

Sarah Hilkemann of Velvet Ashes explores the power of hearing stories of past and current missionaries, as well as sharing our own stories, even when they are messy or difficult.

• Velvet Ashes
• Legacy Podcast
• “Many of us who have served cross-culturally were inspired by those workers from the past.”
• “It is easy to put cross-cultural workers now, but also in the past, on a pedestal, but I think we can learn so much from these stories from the past, more than just the hero status of these women.”
• Yet We Still Hope Book
• “We know that Jesus told stories, and we see that thread throughout Scripture as a really helpful and powerful way to interact with people and connect on a different level.”
• “We see these women fighting for joy and holding tight to hope, and that can give us courage, too.”
• “We need the messy stories. We need the stories of brokenness and hope and healing because it helps us remember we’re not alone, and it can give us the courage to keep going.”
• “When we allow global workers to share their stories, it helps us remember that they are human. I think so many people have suffered or struggled in silence because they were held captive by that fear.”
• “Transparency doesn’t necessarily mean sharing your story with everyone.”
• “We don’t have to wait for the perfect situation and the perfect person to share things with [...] We need to find those people who are safe enough.”

Join TeachBeyond for our 40 Days of Prayer!

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Poster printer at the library
• Heather: Corgi coming to small group
• Sarah: Fireplace videos

Weekly Spotlight: Christian Academy in Mozambique

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

In this last episode of 2022, Brian Delamont returns to the podcast to guide us in looking to the pages of Scripture to enrich our prayer life.

• “The greatest resource that we have for prayer is the Bible - to look at Scripture, to read it with an awareness that it is a conversation that God has with us through the entire Bible. All of Scripture is God talking to us.”
• Context questions: Who is speaking? How might I place myself in this conversation? Who is being spoken to? How is my current situation similar/different?
• Content questions: What does this passage tell me about God? What does this passage tell me about people?
• Community questions: What does this passage tell me about myself? What does this passage tell me about those around me?
• Exodus 34:5-7
• “How will this passage of Scripture inform my prayer?”
• Numbers 6:24-26
• “We have this amazing opportunity to really extend our vocabulary, if you will, in our conversation with God by grounding ourselves in what He has already said to us and what other people over millennia have said to Him.”
• “The more we see what God is doing, the more we get to worship.”

Sign up to join TeachBeyond for 40 Days of Prayer beginning on January 9!

December Reflection: Are you happy with the prayers you’ve been praying? Do they feel alive? If not, what would you like to change in 2023? What will you do to have prayer be more meaningful and alive than ever before as you step into this new year?

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Pizza stone
• Heather: Being home more
• Brian: A working furnace

Weekly Spotlight: BridgeWay North American School

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

Merry Christmas! At this time of year, we celebrate Jesus coming to earth as the promised Messiah. Jason Helopoulos, author and pastor, joins the podcast today to share about how the Old Testament culminates in the coming of our “long-awaited Savior” and how faith communities can point one another to Christ.

• The Promise: The Amazing Story of Our Long-Awaited Savior
• “God created all things for His glory and then, ultimately, for our good. These are the two purposes of everything that exists [...] History is simply the unfolding of God working out His purposes in this world for His glory and for the salvation of His people.”
• “We’re part of the story. [We] see ourselves in the midst of that story - because it’s all one story for His glory, for our good, for the salvation of His people.”
• “Every single one of [the heroes of our faith] is marked by some weakness, some failure, some sin [...] They are continually pointing us to the One who is perfect and holy and had no failing and answers our every need.”
• “I just want them to delight in Jesus.”
• 1 Corinthians 10
• Hebrews 4
• “So much of the Christian life is you and I waiting, but waiting purposefully, between the already and the not yet. We’re already enjoying the beauties of Christ and the gifts Christ, and not yet have we received it all.”
• “We’re constantly encouraging and exhorting one another to look to Christ and consider Christ.”
• “The Lord has put us together for each other’s good so that we finish this race together.”
• Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Self-checkout at Aldi
• Heather: Church-wide small group study
• Jason: Slowing down and meditating on Scripture

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

Whether you’re spending time in person with a missionary this Christmas or are looking for ways to care from afar, Tim Hood shares practical, creative suggestions for this holiday season.

• ”For missionaries, home is complicated. They have this deep sense of not knowing where home actually is.”
• Psalm 90:1
• “Knowing your missionaries, understanding their contexts, knowing their likes and dislikes, knowing some of the challenges they face is really the first step of being able to minister effectively, being able to meet them where they are.”
• “What would be a blessing? And then do that.”
• “The holidays are a gift-giving season, but sometimes what is the most important to a missionary [is just] to be remembered.”
• Ephesians 4
• “Praying for missionaries is such a huge deal, and letting them know that is also a huge deal.”

We also recommend Episode 68: Five Questions Not to Ask a Missionary with Kara Delaney.

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Warmer weather in the winter
• Heather: Feeling better after being sick
• Tim: New coffee grinder and music from his church

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

Continuing in our Advent series, Brian Delamont returns to the podcast to explore how our longings shape the way we live. Don’t miss how our families coordinate gift-giving, a number of Christmas carol quotes, and Brian’s monthly reflection question!

• Draw Names App
• “What you hope for shapes what you live for.” - The Bible Project
• “Anticipation ignites a thrill in the present caused by nothing more than a possibility in the future.” - Erwin McManus
• 1 Corinthians 16:22
• “[The Gospel] is about the power that Jesus gives us to live our hope right now and to long for what He will do in the future.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:58
• “The object of our desires is usually closely related to a change in our lifeworld. Either we desire something to be added or something to be taken away.” - Geoff Beech
• “The long-expected Jesus is the answer to [our] longings. In anticipation of Jesus’ rule in all our hearts alone and by Jesus’ all-sufficient merit, we are raised to God’s glorious throne.”
• “Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love.” - James K. A. Smith
• “What I want actually tells me an awful lot about who I am and who I am becoming.”
• “We’re expecting whatever it is we’re hoping for or longing for [...] to satisfy us, to fulfill our cravings, and to meet our needs. And anything less than God will leave us disappointed.”
• “[Jesus] is against our longing for the wrong things in the wrong place in the wrong way. We can have a wealth of things, yet have poverty towards God. It’s because our longing, our hope, our desire is misdirected.”
• Luke 12:30-34
• “What do I treasure? What am I prepared to do so that I long for the best of all possible treasure?”
• “Much of what we hope for will remain out of our grasp until Jesus comes and makes all things new. This is the hope, the good news of the Gospel.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:1-2
• “We long to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling. In this Advent season, we long and we groan. We hope for the future, and we stand firm in the present.”

Advent Reflection: What are you longing for today, and how is that longing shaping you?

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Sickness in the family
• Heather: Coffee beans from Papua New Guinea
• Brian: Watching his son experience joy after a difficult season

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

What is Christmas really all about? How are my practices in alignment with my beliefs? In this conversation, Clayton Greene shares the story of how Advent Blocks came to be and challenges us to consider how our celebrations point us to the coming of Christ.

• GoodKind Shop
• “You say that Christmas is all about Jesus, but it feels like Christmas is all about presents.”
• “How much inconsistency is there in my intention to walk with God and practice my faith, and my actual ability to do it?”
• “Holidays and annual rhythms have an insane amount of power on what we do in a year and [...] in shaping who we are.”
• “A lot of the excitement you feel in December is actually not pointing you toward the coming of Christ.”
• “Slowing down and having an analog relational conversational moment about God and what He has done with your family is both being present in that moment and an anticipation of the future moment.”

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Snacking on carrots
• Heather: Seeing David at Sight and Sound Theatres
• Clayton: Playing in the front yard

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

We’re kicking off our annual Advent series with Amanda Bible Williams, co-founder of She Reads Truth! Amanda shares about keeping Scripture central, holding the tension of joy and longing, and how her family celebrates the season together.

• She Reads Truth | He Reads Truth
• “We exist to help women and men and families to open their Bibles every day.”
• “The Advent season is the season of preparation to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to understand why we’re celebrating.”
• “When Christmas day comes around, we’re not taken by surprise or struggling to remember what this day is really about, but we’re ready and we’ve been spending weeks pondering the manger.”
• Isaiah 9:2
• John 1:14
• “Though the story is the same, we can approach it from different angles in different seasons of life.”
• “Aren’t we all longing for something, for someone? As Christians, we believe that our longings at their deepest are only met in Jesus.”
• She Reads Truth Podcast

Check out the Advent collection at shopshereadstruth.com and use the code AMANDA15 for 15% off!

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: Thanksgiving road trip and family time
• Heather: Navigating flight changes
• Amanda: Voice messages

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

Dayne Smith shares how he was led into missions and how God is at work through TeachBeyond South Africa.

• TeachBeyond Sparrow Project
• Open Schools Worldwide
• “You can get caught in a trap of thinking that you can and you are supposed to do so much in your own strength and by yourself, but that’s so far from the truth. I think God wants us to lean on Him and trust in Him and rely on Him.”
• “He’s working, and it’s His plan for our lives, and we need to be really sensitive to what He is doing.”
• “Listen to God more; do less.”
• Pray for TeachBeyond South Africa: Healthy ministry rhythm, open doors of opportunities, funding, entrepreneurship training, health in their family

What’s changing our lives:

• Keane: NFC tokens
• Heather: Getting photos printed
• Dayne: His daughter’s expanding vocabulary

Weekly Spotlight: Bucharest Christian Academy

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