In Focus

When Diana Glyer, Ph.D., associate professor of English, bought her home a few years ago, it had a large garden space that was in dire need of care and renovation. Dried weeds had taken over the side yard and broken concrete filled the back yard. Struck with the need to create a refuge of natural beauty, Glyer decided to blend her passion for gardening with her love for discipling students. She believed the process of working together would give her and the young women she led a better understanding of God's heart for them.

“Gardening reminds me of how God works in our hearts - you have to dig down deep and wait with patience as you plant, care, and cultivate seeds,” she said. “We decided to get together once a week for two hours. We spent the first hour planting, weeding, digging, and pruning. After the work was done, we'd get some tea and sit inside and share prayer requests. We found that as we transformed the garden, we were changed as well.”

Kayla Winiarz '01 was in Glyer's garden group last year. “It was the highlight of my week,” she said. “Diana has the unique ability to nurture on an individual basis. She taught each of us some basic steps to take care of plants and then let us choose what we wanted to do on any given day.” For Winiarz, these times were not only a learning experience, but comforting as well. “I discovered that when I was the most busy and stressed out by school, there was a great deal of solace in the time that I spent cultivating a little bit of earth.”

“Working in the garden with Diana and the girls always enriched me,” said Julie Dan '00, who was in the original group when it began in the summer of 1999. “We had such special times together. Diana's words of wisdom eased many of my problems, though many answers came just as we worked together in the garden. When I come down to visit, we go back to the garden, pull on our gloves, pull out the weeds, and share our lives.”

Students gain experience and knowledge from their classes, but they need the personal element of an inspiring teacher to walk away with a true understanding of how those skills can change their world. Educators who realize that for learning to impact living, it must make and cultivate strong connections between education, community, and spirituality are the ones who turn students into scholars, believers into disciples, and individuals into community leaders.

“I would like to thank you for all the many wonderful things you have done for me in the past three years,” wrote Derek Simpson in a farewell letter to Jack Carter. “You always had an open door if I had questions. Above being my teacher, you were also my friend.”

Deborah Flagg is a student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and a freelance writer living in Azusa. fourflagg@aol.com

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