Editor's Column by Carolyn Stent No one can spend time with Debbie without experiencing some adventures.

Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Editor's Columns | Send mail to The Voice Friend models the importance of mentoring I have one message on my voice mail that I intend to save for as long as possible. "Hello, Carolyn Stent. This is Debbie. I'm calling to say goodbye, sweetie. I'll try to call you, or if you get a chance, call me. But I don't want you to pay for it. It's just good hearing your voice. I love you." I'm not saving this message because it is profound or exciting. I'm saving it because my friend, Debbie Rupe, returned to Pakistan soon after she left this message. I don't know when I'll next have an opportunity to talk to her. Debbie was a dorm parent at the boarding school I attended in Pakistan where my parents were missionaries. I don't remember when I first met her, but she remembers me as a self-confident young girl. "Your sister always called me Auntie Debbie," she has often told me. "But you would come up to me and say, 'Hey, Deb!'" I don't remember this, but I know that we have been friends ever since. During the three years I had Debbie for a dorm parent, we talked over many cups of coffee. I joined her when she ran errands or visited the homes of Pakistani staff. She recommended books to me, and we discussed movies we had seen. I always appreciated her sense of humor. I'll never forget the night she woke up all of her girls and told us to meet downstairs. As we straggled into the room, we saw chicken tikkas, a local dish of spicy barbecued chicken, and flat bread on the tables. She told us she had always wanted to do this. No one can spend time around Debbie without experiencing some adventures. When highway robbers held a gun to her car window, she stepped on the gas pedal and drove in reverse gear along a winding mountain road. One night she and I were singing "Silent Night" when a motorcyclist hit a rock on the road and careened into us from behind. We joke that our singing must have been terrible. Last year, I called her in Pennsylvania, where she was on home assignment, and we sang the Christmas carol together over the phone. Debbie is more than a friend, however. She is the closest mentor I have ever had. Through evening devotions and weekly Bible studies, Debbie opened my eyes to the depth of God's word. I think of her every time I read about love in the book of James or about building up the body of Christ in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Debbie not only talked about God's love, but she also modeled it in her relationships with other staff and with my peers. I don't remember hearing her criticize the students who were struggling or rebelling against the rules. Instead she expressed compassion for them and allowed them to express their frustration. Before waking us each morning, she read her Bible and prayed for us. Some mornings my friends and I met in her room to pray before school. She expressed love and compassion for everyone she met. After reading the parable of the wedding banquet from Matthew 22, she and her friend, Eunice Hill, dreamed up a ministry that they called "Beggar's Banquet." Staff and students gave invitations to beggars and poor people in the nearby town. We hired a local cook to prepare a huge meal, and we filled bags with flour, nuts, dried fruit and candy for the people who came. Debbie recently moved with her friend, Eunice, to Pakistan's capital city. Their home, called The Shade, is a retreat for students, staff and missionaries. When I visited them two years ago, nearly 30 people came through their home in three days. In his song, "Walk With the Wise," Stephen Curtis Chapman sings, "I've learned to look for answers in those born before my time. As I listen to them tell me what they've learned in their lives, I talk to friends with understanding much deeper than my own and gain wisdom beyond measure I could never find alone." God knows that I need wisdom beyond my own, so He has always provided wise people such as Debbie in my life. All I have to do is be willing to learn as I walk with them. Back to Table of Contents | Back to Main Index Previous Editor's Columns | Top Of Page Send mail to The Voice| Journalism department website © 2002 The Voice. No part of this publication may be reproduced in written or electronic form without prior written consent from the journalism adviser of Multnomah Bible College. All rights reserved.