Discussing Purpose or Vocation with Students - Sandy Tucker's Story

 

Some kids know what they want to be when the grow up from a very young age. Others struggle to identify their interests and passions. Still others seem to flit from one eclectic idea to another, as if they were butterflies tasting one flower after another but not quite landing on any. Sandy Tucker’s story may be a way for you to start a conversation about purpose and vocation with your students.

Sandy Tucker lived near Liberty, Kentucky, where she and her husband founded the Galilean Children’s Home[1]. After the couple got married, they wanted to have a baby but it did not happen for a very long time – seven years. Sandy loved children so she was disappointed not to be able to get pregnant. Because she was a Christian, Sandy prayed about her problem. Because she was a Christian, she read the Bible every day. She believed that God talks to people through the Bible. One day she found a verse that seemed to be God telling her what He wanted her to do with her life. It says: “Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy” (Psalm 82:3). Because of this verse, the Tuckers started taking care of children whom nobody else wanted because they had disabilities or serious diseases or because their mothers had given birth to them in prison. They adopted their first sick baby in 1969. Since then the Galilean Children’s Home has taken care of more than 1,000 other children. The ministry even received the 1992 President’s Annual Points of Light Award from President Bush. Even after Sandy Tucker died in 2007, the Galilean Children’s Home continues to do its important work. So, you could say that Sandy Tucker found her purpose because she prayed about her disappointment and searched the Bible to find what she understood as God’s calling or vocation for her life. Then she acted on what she believed God wanted her to do.

After you tell your students about Sandy Tucker’s life and work, ask them what they think they will do when they grow up and why. Ask them how they are or will know that they have chosen a good direction for their lives. Discuss how Sandy Tucker’s Christian faith influenced her life’s work. Then ask them to think about whether and how their faith plays any role in what they plan to do with their lives.

 

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[1] https://galileanhome.org/

 

Exploring the issue of freedom with youth and children

 

Have you ever explored the issue of freedom with your church’s youth and children? This week’s famous Kentucky Christian may be a way for you to open the conversation.

Peter Durrett was an enslaved, biracial man, whose father was his first owner. He believed the Christian message and received it into his heart during the First Great Awakening in Virginia. He became a Baptist exhorter when he was twenty-five. He never was ordained because the white church officials prevented it. But his enslaved condition did not stop him from following his calling as a pastor.

Peter Durrett and his wife, Dinah Durrett, came to Kentucky in 1781 with the Traveling Church. Peter and Captain William Ellis were the guides for this group of some 500 Baptists who emigrated from Virginia. Peter and Ellis had been to Kentucky before. They knew the way through the mountains, and they had planted crops in Kentucky. They also helped build Grant’s Station. Both Durretts were enslaved to Pastor Joseph Craig, one of the leaders of the Traveling Church. They were never emancipated but they were able to hire themselves out to prominent people. Peter was the first African American to preach a sermon in Kentucky. He and his wife started the first African American church in Kentucky, the third in the nation.

Do your students think that they would be willing to do what Peter Durrett did especially if they knew they would always have to be a slave? What do your students think they would do if their freedom was taken away? Why? Would their faith be something they would be willing to share if they understood that they would be imprisoned for talking about?