Robert Lowery

In late July our three families took a vacation together, our first ever: Brian, Sarah, and Eden, along with Joe, Rachel, Carissa, Jocelyn, and Dawson, and Marilyn and me. We journeyed to beautiful Door County (Wisconsin) where we stayed a week. I loved the time together—the stories, the boat cruises, the miniature golf outings, the shopping, trying new restaurants and revisiting familiar ones, the laughter around the dining table, and countless conversations.

Marilyn and I had decided to take Carissa (6) and Jocelyn (4) with us a day or two ahead of the others. The first night we were scheduled to stay in the Milwaukee area. We had printed out directions but we got lost. We had rented a van, and the girls were sitting in the middle row and heard a rather spirited conversation going on between Papa and Grandma! Jocelyn piped up: “Papa, have you ever considered getting a Garmin GPS?” To which Carissa added, “Mommy and Daddy say that it has saved their marriage. Maybe it will help yours!” We all started laughing. The discussion was ended, and we found the hotel, at last. Marilyn had been right about what exit to take.

A few days later, I was sitting out on the deck of the house we had rented, enjoying the cool breeze coming off Lake Michigan. Jocelyn opened the sliding door and came out to join me. We were alone. She sat down beside me and reminded me of an encounter she and I had with a neighbor of ours in Lincoln just a few days earlier. This gracious neighbor had said to Jocelyn and me: “Bob, we pray for you often.” Jocelyn replied: “Well, we pray for papa every night!”

As we were sitting out on the deck, Jocelyn asked me how I was feeling. It had been a particularly demanding day–too much walking. I told her, and I asked her to pray for me. The darkness was coming on. Jocelyn grew silent, and I could barely make her out even though she was sitting right next to me. She was silent for several seconds. I asked her: “Jocelyn, what are you doing?” She replied: “Papa, you asked me to pray for you, and that is what I was doing. Daddy always tells Carissa and me that whenever someone asks us to pray, we should do so as soon possible.”

Amen!

By the way, late last week we bought a Garmin GPS. Our marriage is getting stronger.

Amen!

On August 1 I began my thirty-sixth year of teaching in the Seminary of Lincoln Christian University. I am blessed! The title of this posting describes how I have felt over the years. Of course, there have been ups and downs, but that is to be expected in ministry, isn’t it? But again, I am blessed!

I wish I could write that whenever I stepped into the classroom or whenever I met with students one-on-one or in a small group around a lunch table, I always did my best. That has not always been the case, but my students have been, for the most part, forgiving. Sometime ago I commented about a student who has either taken for credit or audited every class I have ever taught, “She has been to more of my classes than I have!” I confess that sometimes I showed up or phoned in a session. But I hope that has not happened often. The point is that after teaching all these years, each August I am re-energized to begin once again, and this year is not different.

But I begin this new school year with a request. The requst is awkward for me to raise, but here goes. As most of you know I have been an Adjunct Professor for TCM International Institute, a ministry committed to equipping Europeans and people living in Central Asia for ministry. I began my ministry with this outstanding organization in 1993 and have returned each summer to teach. I am blessed! Some of the finest students, faculty, administrators, and support personnel I have ever met are a part of TCMI.

Over the years I have tried to be a disciple-maker, both in the States and throughout Eastern Europe. My passion is to be a practioner-scholar and to help make more and better disciples of Jesus. I learned this from my mother and from my home church in Indianapolis, Indiana (Fairfax Christian Church), and numerous other Christians, from preachers to professors to students to friends to colleagues. In April of this year I found out that the TCM Board of Directors’ Meeting unanimously adopted a resolution to create the Dr. Robert Lowery Faculty Chair Endowment Fund. This endowment will be used to recognize and select a faculty member by supporting his or her base salary, teaching, and research activities that will directly relate for further development of international disciple makers throughout Europe and Central Europe. I was and remain humbled by this recognition. May I say again, I am blessed.

So here is my request. Should you or a congregation you know be looking for an opportunity to support one of the finest para-church ministries I know of, would you personally give or encourage others or other congregations to give? It is not like me to make such a request, and this is the first time I have ever done so on this site. Should you choose to give, it is not to honor me. Far from it, it is to honor God.

Please contact David Wright at TCM International Institute, Inc., 6337 Hollister Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46224 or call him at 1:317-299-0333. His e-mail address is david@tcmi.org.

May we be grateful to God that each of us can write: I am blessed.

News of the upcoming festschrift for Dr. Lowery (first announced here) was recently featured in the Springfield, Illinois, Journal-Register.  You’ll find the piece here:

Beloved professor subject of ‘writing party’