One of the most difficult things about transitioning from academic life to life in Oklahoma has to do with students. Yesterday I walked across the campus at the university here in town, not as a faculty member, but as a visitor, but it all felt familiar, all of the energy, the passion, the conversations, the ideas, and on and on we could go.
So, it is with much enthusiasm that my wife and I approach this weekend. It's that way because Social Justice Team IV is coming to town. Perhaps that is an odd way of "labeling" these three good people, but, indeed, they do form Team IV: Ruqayyah Samia, Daniel Haile, and Ty Mansfield, all students in the COAMFTE-approved marriage and family therapy program at Abilene Christian University. All such programs do a good job of teaching bright students how to become good marriage and family therapists. ACU is a bit different in that it engages the best and the brightest, not just to become good therapists, but to do so for the sake of the Kingdom. Along the way, several of them over the past four years have allowed their hearts to lead them to join the social justice team work, work that is explained in the header up to your right from this page. I'm proud of those students, present and past, because they are indeed advocating for good in a lot of places around the country these days.
So, this weekend will be a sweet one, and it'll end too quickly. We'll show them around the city, eat some good food, catch up a bit, and then we'll jump into what we'll do in Memphis at AAMFT, and hopefully in Ft. Worth at TAMFT in January, and especially what we'll do as we continue to study white privilege in the area of farming. Is it there? I think it is. We'll see. We'll let you know what we come up with on these pages.
