Linda Leonard

NOVEMBER 2009 INTERVIEW

How did God first prod you to ministry amongst international students?

The Word of God became the rule of my life even in elementary school because I memorized it in the Sunday School and youth program at church.

I began studying French in junior high and had a pen pal whom I later met in Paris while I was in college. Our high school had foreign exchange students and I spent time with one from Germany. Even then I realized how God was bringing people together in special ways across international borders. As an undergraduate I spent one summer alone on my own in Europe and suffered the homesickness and cultural shock familiar to every international student. French evangelicals supported me through the summer and I fellowshipped with them in their homes and church. They even offered me a job in the vineyard when the airline went broke and I had no ticket back to the States! Because I continued to study foreign language / cultures education in grad school, I was with a lot of international students as colleagues who represented scores of countries. I met a Christian classmate in English as a Second Language and together we led an international women's Bible study with Campus Crusade materials. In the late 70's I went to the Urbana missions conference where I attended a 30 minute walk through the Bible about "God's heart for the international". I was gripped with the message of grace to "the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger among you".

I have carried those verses in my heart to this day and they compelled me even then to volunteer with International Students, Inc. while in grad school and later to join as a full time staff member. Those same verses led me to initiate a community-wide church-based ministry to southeast Asian refugees in Washington state where I taught in my home town in the 80's. I saw God transform an entire community through loving believers who opened their homes and their hearts to unaccompanied minors from war-torn Asia and I saw my Vietnamese colleague's parents, both senior leaders of the Buddhist community in our county, become baptized believers before their deaths. My former ESL high school students are now adults who are involved in lay ministry in the USA as well as their home counties in SE Asia. French was my initial path to relationships with people of my own generation from that region and ESL was the tool that built relationships with the youth and their families.

Our deep interpersonal relationships meant that students came to me for spiritual guidance and joined an international study for non-native speakers of English [immigrants and international students] where every student made a commitment to Christ after studying the "Growing in Christ" booklet.

How are you maximizing your gifts, skills, and experience as the Academy’s curriculum coordinator?

(New title: Educational Consultant, as of June 15, 2011)

Oh my! All my classroom experience at the high school and university levels is critical to creating good curriculum design for the Academy. I had purposely focused on teaching and learning instead of content in graduate school. Whatever content the Academy needs to provide will need to be "packaged" in ways that make learning more reflective, more meaningful, more accessible and applicable to people who participate in the Academy. Since my dissertation dealt with mentoring, I'm able to bring even that experience to the table because we envision Wilberforce Academy students having mentors in their career/.academic fields as well as in their cultural home environments. Certainly, everything I've learned about research and program evaluation is being used in the process. Additionally, even though I don't have a degree in theological studies, I've had very good teaching pastors and some experience with Biblical languages so I am able to read, appreciate, and discuss various theological points of view and different world views as they are related to transformational education and a Christian's call to be "salt and light". It probably helps, too, that I have many international friends, neighbors, and tenants who share their lives and points of view with me.

Some are Muslim, others are Hindu, several are Buddhist, and the Christians represent a number of different traditions. After spending more than half of my life immersed in living with and among international people, I have resources to go to in terms of figuring out what kind of instructional materials and approach might best be suited to Wilberforce students. Having spent this many years in the metro also means that I either know or know how to find Christians who are networked with many denominations, congregations, ministries, non-profits, and professional offices. These personal connections can be very important in building relationships to contribute to our mentoring and curriculum components. I should add that one of my best resources is my friend Carol Pass [currently neighborhood president] who mentored me through my PhD program, models neighborhood ministry, and whose formal training in economics, political science, and philosophy provides an immense peer asset in my task of evaluating curricular and program options for the Academy.

How will your concern for the urban poor impact the Academy’s curriculum?

Everything we do needs to be filtered through scripture and what we understand the Mind of Christ to be in regard to our calling in this world. It isn't that I'm just concerned about the urban poor, although I am. My personal concern is to live out the fullest extent my ability to honor God by giving my life...body, soul, heart, mind, and resources.....back to Him in honor to do the most good. "In the City for Good" is a play on words that encourages me. I can remember years ago driving into Minneapolis on a gray, dismal late fall cold Sunday afternoon after church in a western suburb. "God, do I have to stay here?" I wept. I so miss the green trees, fresh air, mountains of my youth. The smell and taste of salt water on my face. The quiet solitude of the woods and the soft grass and moss under bare feet. "Yes." came the silent, but real answer, "and you might as well get used to it." So, I've tried to enjoy it along the way...but it isn't always easy and life is literally a big risk here. Jesus cared about the poor, the hurting, the misunderstood, the sick, the imprisoned, the people with fewer resources. I have the joy of seeing crack heads and prostitutes restored to life; of seeing sad children enjoy a popsicle on my porch. Of "being there" when a neighbor's house burns down. Of praying with the falsely accused who are going to jail because dishonest police officers needed a scapegoat to hide their misdeeds. Of offering free shelter to youths beaten by their mother's boyfriends. Of sponsoring a baby shower for an immigrant who has never had one.....Years of working through structural and policy change for East Phillips as a board member and community member means that tomorrow we are finally breaking ground on a funded cultural and community center to be built within two blocks of my house.

This building with its gym, commercial kitchen, community rooms, and classrooms will be a resource where Christian as well as non-sectarian agencies can partner in offering programs to the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the entire USA!!. Yep, no lie. We have dozens of languages spoken within one square mile. I expect that Wilberforce students will be able to use relationships in this community to discover ways to assist people in using their own assets to change public policy, initiate programs, and to rebuild lives in their own spheres of influence wherever in the world that might be. I told our outspoken atheist park board commissioner that if ever, in spite of so much opposition from people inside city hall and the park board itself, this building were ever built, it would be by the grace of God and not by human design. The Grace of God will be demonstrated tomorrow at the Groundbreaking! Bob and I will be there quietly rejoicing in God's provision as one more step toward the redemption of multiple cultures and many folks here in the community. Wilberforce Academy can use the work here in housing, public safety, youth programming, and other community-based initiatives to inspire its students and fellows as they seek God's calling in their own lives. I've mentored and supervised student teachers and more recently interns in the neighborhood. Perhaps Wilberforce will place interns here as well.

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