Transformed & Transformational

What keeps you up at night? What thoughts play on repeat in your mind? In this episode, Brian Delamont joins us to explore how God transforms our thinking—especially when it comes to anxiety and security. Drawing from Scripture we discuss how trusting in God's care can reshape our worries and bring lasting peace. Tune in for a thoughtful conversation on seeking God's Kingdom first and allowing His truth to guard our hearts and minds.

• Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen
• Proverbs 12:25
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• "Anxiety can flow from what we expose ourselves to, and it can be addressed or mitigated by what we expose ourselves to, as well."
• Luke 12:22-34
• "God will take care of what is in His hands. Every good father watches over his children. The Father knows what you need."
• "God's Kingdom is where He rules and He reigns. It's the wonder of the garden creation and the splendor of the new city with the Lamb of God and its centerpiece and light. Think about seeing God's Kingdom in relationship to anxiety and security. When I seek His Kingdom, there is no fear in this task. It's God's Kingdom, and He rules, so I don't need to. He invites me to be part of that dominion, and the starting point for God's Kingdom coming is my heart and mind. If I give Him me, then his Kingdom will begin to be seen in me because I'll reflect it. And God knows what we need.
• "Our Shepherd will provide care; therefore, I don't need to be afraid to do what He has called me to do."
• "Transformation is a change in how I think."
• Psalm 127:2
• "God will accomplish His purposes. No amount of hard work, early mornings, late nights are going to gain a thing if God's not in it."
• "Rest is one of the gifts God has given us to counter anxiety and release control."
• Philippians 4:6-8
• "God is offering us peace, even in persecution which is beyond a normal human response… It's God setting up a fortress of peace around your heart and your mind."
• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
• Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard

January Reflection: What am I thinking most about?

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• Heather: Cordless rechargeable lamps
• Brian: Reflecting on what he is thinking about

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/

Chloe Powell, university student in the USA, shares about her summer internship experience with TeachBeyond - learning about the organization, using her gifts to serve, and deepening her understanding of global missions.

• "Whether you're the missionary being sent or you're the sender offering your support, those roles are all needed."
• "You hear a lot about missionaries and they're the ones who are going out on the mission field and serving, but there's so much that happens behind the scenes, and those people are still considered missionaries, as well."
• "I witnessed a practical approach to be able to contextualize the Gospel message in a way that's understandable cross-culturally while still valuing that person's cultural identity."
• "Displaying humility and being willing to ask questions can really lead to beautiful relationships."
• "When you ask lots of different TeachBeyond members about what TeachBeyond is, they are likely going to give you many different answers. Through my internship, I was able to get a glimpse of a variety of those different descriptions and see the different parts that make up TeachBeyond."
• "Knowing that I don't have to do it on my own and that the Lord has prepared the way and He has prepared me and equipped me with all that I need to be able to do that, that was so encouraging to hear."
• "Pursue whatever the Lord is placing on your heart and continue to walk through those doors that the Lord has opened for you, and just trust that His plan is great."
• "It can be so easy to want to stay in your own comfort zone, but it's in those moments when we're out of our comfort zones that we experience the most growth."
• "Being part of something bigger than myself and knowing that the Lord can use me to help transform lives and communities around the world is just such an exciting thing."
• "My generation has a great access to understanding and wanting to learn more about people who are different than ourselves, and I think that's something that we can really bring to the mission field."

What's changing our lives:

• Heather: Creating stickers on iMessage
• Chloe: Time with family and friends over the holidays

Weekly Spotlight: Internships with TeachBeyond

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

What exactly does a Head of School do? What does your school leader wish you knew? Hear from two school directors, Walter Hopkins and Lori Neuman, about their experiences leading Christian schools, from big-picture vision to the everyday details.

• "What the vision was initially – to reach Spain – has been expanded to reaching the nations with the Gospel message." - Walter
• "The Lord has placed a shepherd's heart in me, and that's what I love to be able to do - to be able to shepherd the staff and the students." - Walter
• "It's a big mix of the day-to-day little minute things but also the big picture and the direction that the school is going, so it's a fun mix. Each day is unique and full of new things that I have no idea will come, and that's honestly what makes it fun – it's always different." - Lori
• "God gives us little by little additional responsibilities and ideas and opportunities. So, I think it's important to say 'yes' and trust God with what He's giving you, and seek Him in all of it." - Lori
• "I never ever twenty years ago would have imagined myself sitting in this chair." - Walter
• "When they see a school leader not being fazed by things or not letting their emotions get in the way of leading, that makes a big difference to them." - Lori
• "If I'm asking things of the staff that I myself don't want to do or don't think I have time to do, then that's probably a good check that I don't think this is a good thing to be asking of the staff." - Lori
• "It's healthy to delegate because you can't do it all. I can't do it all, and even though I think that I can, that's just pride." - Lori
• "One of the most important ways that someone can support a school leader is through prayer." - Walter
• "To see what is happening outside of our school building, where parents are doing life on life with other parents, and they're out there in the plaza outside of the school sometimes for hours and hours, and the love of Christ is being shared – that's a beautiful thing to see." - Walter

Click here to learn more about current school leadership openings with TeachBeyond!

What's changing our lives:

• Heather: New baby niece
• Lori: Finding a quicker route to get home from work
• Walter: Balancing graduate classes with work and life

Weekly Spotlight: LIFE International School in Spain and GDQ International Christian School in Albania

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

Author Katy Boatman shares about how to come alongside pre-teens with the truth of God's Word and the reassurance of His presence as they navigate fear and anxiety.

• Learn more about Katy Boatman here!
• Resources from David Thomas and Sissy Goff
• "We're dealing with an anxious generation. To be aware of it is important, but also to help them navigate what they are truly feeling is really important."
• "Reminding them that they're not alone is one of the most important things [...] There is a God that is truly with them."
• "When we say the phrase 'you can rest' and 'you can trust,' my hope is that, to these kids, it is a reminder that they're not alone, that God is with them, and that He does have a plan."
• "The Lord is my shepherd, I have what I need." Psalm 23:1
• "Thankfully, we have the story, we have Scripture in front of us. So, we know where this thing is headed, we know how the story ends. But, that takes a daily kind of surrender to self and a daily reminder that God is good, that God is with us [...] He's in control, and you're not alone."

Check out other episodes we mentioned:

• Episode 19: Emotional Health & the Mood Meter with Amy Massingale
• Episode 72: Processing Loss with Sarah Fine
• Episode 46: Processing Trauma with Annie Stepanenko

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Playing four-square with his sons
• Heather: Journal app
• Katy: Pickleball

Weekly Spotlight: International School of the Caucasus

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

For our first episode of 2025 we are digging out an episode from the archives! Enjoy this conversation from 2021 discussing how to move into the new year with intentionality.

Are you setting New Year's Resolutions or goals for 2021? Join us for this conversation with Mark Giebink, TeachBeyond's Director of Member Care, helping us shift our focus from striving for success to hope-filled surrender.

• Reimagining the Examen App
• "Silence and Solitude, things that we tend to ignore in our busy lives, help us to make space for that reflection to give us time to look back, but then also to look forward, to really have a conversation with God about what we want life to look like."
• "If COVID has given us a gift, I think it's been to slow us down a little bit. It's exposed our interiors. As our outside world is iffy and unstable, it has exposed our hearts."
• "We can rearrange the furniture in our lives, but the real change happens inside us, in our hearts and in our minds."
• "Three key ingredients to transformation are honesty, God's presence, and a loving environment."
• "God lives and works and meets us in reality. He doesn't meet us in what we wish were the case or our fantasyland; He meets us in real life. That's the beauty of the incarnation."
• Romans 15:13
• "Hope is a huge ingredient for change. If we don't have hope, we're not going to do it."
• "Love is so much greater a motivation to change than fear."
• "Celebrating every success is important, breaking that big overarching goal into small steps."
• "Hold resolutions with open hands and make them an ongoing conversation with God so that it's not a one-time conversation."
• "There are two circles in life: things we can control and things we can't. We have to make sure our resolutions are related to things we can control."
• "To know that we are known and loved by God, that's a great motivator for transformation."

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Rocket book
• Heather: Snuggly Sweater candle
• Mark: Chickens and grandkids

Weekly Spotlight: Dakar Academy

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

In the final episode of 2024, Brian Delamont returns to the podcast to talk about transformed direction. Repentance isn't just a one-time event at the time of salvation but a daily surrender and redirection.

• Joel 2:12-13
• "We can rationalize or explain just about anything in our behavior and our thinking rather than truly commit to a transformed direction."
• "God is longing for us to genuinely change, for us to live lives fully integrated and aligned with Him."
• Hear more about VIM on Episode 157
• Listen to "Come, Thou Fount" here and read more about the story behind the song here
• Acts 2
• "Repentance is not a one time for all time thing, but it is an ongoing act of our relationship with God."
• "To repent is turning from sin and turning to God."
• "It's impossible to underestimate the power of a transformational change in direction. It can break generational patterns of behavior and bring freedom to entire family lines, entire communities."
• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson
• "God does give us moments, like mile markers along the way, that show us progress."
• Mark 1:15
• "Transformation is not me mustering up enough grit or resolve to somehow change my life. Rather, I become a new creation in Christ Jesus. And this is made possible through the very life of Christ, the Holy Spirit living in me, pouring His life into my life in every way."

December Reflection: What do I know needs changing? What do I need to repent of, so that I live fully into God's future for me in the coming year?

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Neighborhood friends
• Heather: Doing "sprint" work on projects with her team
• Brian: Eggnog in his coffee

Weekly Spotlight: GDQ International Christian School

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

From playing music with his family to his calling into missions work to touring through Germany, musician Danny Plett traces the story of God's provision and faithfulness in his life. Danny pulls back the curtain on dark seasons of his life and gives a behind-the-scenes look at his Christmas tour in Germany.

• Learn more about Danny Plett here!
• "My prayer had always been: 'I want to be able to provide for my family, I want my ministry to affect people for Jesus Christ, and I want to be able to not burn my family out.'"
• "God's economy is just so different. What we consider big and what we consider successful is maybe great for some people, but it's a bit of a misnomer in the economy of God's Kingdom. I began to see things very differently. I began to see success and see what was significant, what was important, in a completely different way."
• "In those seasons of vulnerability, the enemy comes and he really tries to ramp up, turn the volume up on fears."
• "There's a lot of material that I can choose from to write songs from – songs of hope, songs of lament, songs of joy because the dark days are over, songs of praise and worship, songs that talk about my doubts and my fears, and many, many people can relate to that."
• "There's a handwork aspect of songwriting that many people can learn, but then you have to put soul into that container. You have to put authenticity and a kind of realness that impacts people on a deeper level."
• "Christmas is really just my favorite time of the year. It's when the Savior of the universe entered my world, and there's so much material there that can be written in countless songs."
• "I want to write songs with depth. I want to write songs that go to the true spiritual meaning of Christmas - and for that, for the unplumbable depth of what took place at Christmas, for that reason, I love Christmas."

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Starting a new journal
• Heather: Hobby nights with friends resuming
• Danny: Going slower and being in shape

Weekly Spotlight: International Academy of St. Petersburg

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

In this episode, TeachBeyond educators reflect on the profound significance of the incarnation in the classroom, exploring how Jesus' full humanity and divinity shape Christian teaching. Through personal insights and Scriptural wisdom, we discuss embodying Christ's love, the power of living out the Word, and practical advice for celebrating Advent with joy. Join us as we consider how the incarnation transforms not only our hearts but also the way we educate.

• Sign up for TeachBeyond's OnPractice newsletter here!
• "Hills of the North Rejoice"
• "When Love Came Down" by Point of Grace
• "In Jesus is the full expression of God but it's Jesus' full humanity. A central Christian claim is that Jesus was fully God and fully human [...] We only know what God is like through Jesus' full humanity." - Wyndy
• "While not bound by time, there is significance about the particular ways in which God chose to show up." - Wyndy
• "Jesus was Jewish, Jesus was working class, Jesus had to flee for His life at some point as a political refugee, and those things seem to matter. They matter to the Gospel writers." - Wyndy
• John 1
• "The incarnation is Word made flesh. While we will never fully be incarnate because God is God incarnate, God became flesh, we are called to be like Jesus. We are called to incarnate the word that He has given us." - Becky
• "Jesus lived out what it means to be love on earth." - Becky
• Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics by Samuel Wells
• "How do we know how to make these improvisations? How do we know how to act? It's by studying the script." - Becky
• "If I want them to see Jesus in me, that means I have to have Jesus in me. I have to be spending time in the Word and have the Word dwelling in me in order for my students to see that." - Heather
• The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God's People by Ray Anderson
• "Lean into it, have fun with it. Let's just rejoice in this time period of a little more crazy. There's so much fun in it, too." - Heather
• "Advent is the beginning of the church year. It now sets the season for everything that is to come." - Wyndy

What's changing our lives:

• Heather: Compassionate time management
• Wyndy: Focus on rest in this season
• Heather: Using her walk to and from school to be still
• Becky: Exploring the topic of "the city" in Scripture while working on a course

Weekly Spotlight: Positions in Art, Drama, and Music

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

How do you picture the nativity scene? Jessica Jenkins shares historical and cultural insight into the birth of Jesus and shares encouragement for telling the story of Christmas.

• Follow Jessica Jenkins at We Who Thirst
• Read about the Historically Accurate Nativity
• "In a house birth, Mary would be surrounded by family and neighbor women and possible midwives, and so you have this whole community surrounding Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. Rather than them being shamed and ostracized and pushed away, it's the gathering in and caring for them."
• "Luke tells us that this house had a guest room. That word in Greek, 'kataluma,' is often what is translated in many English translations as the 'inn.' Where we're used to reading in Luke 2 'there was no room for them in the inn,' the Greek word there is 'kataluma,' which really means 'guest room.'"
• Luke 22 and Mark 14
• "It's not going to be sparse, like our typical stable scenes, where it's just Mary and Joseph and a sheep. You're going to have aunties and hosts and hostess and kids running around screaming and maybe a chicken flying through."
• "You mean Jesus came to be one of us? He's not born in a palace?"
• "Jesus is the One who draws near. He is with you."
• "It's really amazing to think about how God just surrounds these people, and He just puts Himself right in the middle of everyday happenings. The angels come and announce in a big way, which it's definitely worth announcing, but He's also just coming in the absolute simplicity of birth and day-to-day life."
• "The typical nativity story is God not with us. God's away in a manger. He's pushed out, He's far away, He's not really with us, He's over there. But Emmanuel is God with us."
• "Figuring out how to teach kids about Jesus can feel really overwhelming. Don't feel like you have to do it all at once."
• "God came to be with His people, including children."
• "If we can ground our kids [in the truth] that Jesus is near them, rather than being a far-off distant God ready to reject them at a moment's notice for a failure, but He's a God who draws near, that will fundamentally change how they view God and their ability to attach to God and trust God."

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Staffs made out of dowels for his kids
• Heather: Meet-up with other Christian women in her area
• Jessica: Sweatshirts

Weekly Spotlight: ENLACE English Language Center

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

Brian Delamont talks with co-hosts Heather and Keane about how God often works through difficult circumstances to transform us: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16).

• "He's in control, and He is good. He leads us into this opportunity to have difficulties and trials become part of the transformation that He longs for us to experience in order to become all that He intends."
• "We've been given this amazing gift of the Holy Spirit, the glory of God in us, to move us towards transformation."
• 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:1
• "Transformation means difficulty, and difficulty can mean transformation, if we choose to let it work in us the way God intends it to."
• Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer
• "It's not a matter of instant change. There is no experience in the Christian life that will reproduce His image in a moment. It is a process, not a crisis."
• "You and I are not fully transformed the moment we decide to act on Jesus' invitation to become His apprentices. It's this ongoing process."
• 2 Corinthians 4:6-10
• "Spiritual growth and transformation doesn't mean we have fewer and fewer challenges. It means that when the challenges come, when I'm hard pressed, for example, my response is that it's more like Jesus. There's the fruit of the Spirit."
• "Am I suffering because I'm doing things that are contrary to God's best design for my life, or am I suffering because I'm doing things that are going to reveal His greater glory?"
• 2 Corinthians 4:15-18
• "In the transformation process we don't run to difficulties, or foolishly seek out persecution or ridicule. This is not the life Jesus modeled for us at all [...] Suffering itself is not the purpose. If that were the case then God would be tremendously cruel."
• "God has good outcomes for us in mind: Our transformation through difficulties, our growth in joy, perseverance, character, hope, and in being refined to reveal the glory of God."
• 2 Corinthians 3:2-6
• "Our sufferings, our difficulties do more than transform us as individuals. They can transform our friends and our family, our community, as we share and journey through these experiences together."
• "It's not instant happiness [...] it's walking with God through these difficult times. And we know the difficulties are actually a given if we follow Jesus."
• "In walking through these difficulties that transformation becomes so much more visible. It reveals the genuine power of the gospel in the midst of my difficulties, in the midst of our suffering together. And yet in these challenges, we do not lose heart."
• "God is in control. He is sovereign. He sees you, and He is also running the universe in the way He wants it run – in a good way, ultimately, because God is not just sovereign, He is good. And we can rest in that so that we do not lose heart."
• Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller

November Reflection: What do You want to transform in my life right now as I face this difficulty?

What's changing our lives:

• Keane: Sticker door
• Heather: Functional strength training
• Brian: Having a rare, non-cancerous tumor

Weekly Spotlight: Asunción Christian Academy

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