Dan Kline, Coach and Teacher

Doc Kline, was one of the Gymnic coaches and also a a teacher in the Physical Education Department where I was a major.

One day in a kinesiology class, Doc was explaining the Krebs Cycle. After presenting that module, he asked if we had any questions. We had none. We were completely lost. (The Krebs Cycle is complicated. Google it.) Doc had prayed at the beginning of class, which was his custom, but now he prayed again asking that the God who created us and the Krebs Cycle would come and be our Teacher. The next time through the lecture, we got it and we had lots of questions. In the middle of the chatter, Doc paused and smiled. In that pause, in that silence, a knowing swept over the room; we recognized that we had all just been part of a Divine encounter. The Creator had stepped in to be our teacher. My prayer journey expanded that day.

Doc also taught a course in administration. During one lecture he talked about talents and then we were scheduled to have individual appointments with him to talk about our talents and how we could use them. I dreaded that appointment. I’d always had a hard time pinning down my “talents.” I didn’t play the piano (well), I was only a “choir soprano” (no solos please). I really couldn’t think of anything that I was REALLY good at. I was 18 or 19 years old and my understanding of “talents” was limited to what you could do at a talent show. As I struggled during the interview Doc said words like this: “Esther, I wish that we had a job where we could just set you down in the middle of the campus and let you interact with people. You would make them feel so welcomed, so cared for, and so loved. That is your talent.” I started to cry as I recognized the value he saw in me and how my “talents” could be used to grow a life, a school, a business, God’s Kingdom.

Little did I know how God would use those gifts when I said, “Yes,” to pastoral ministry. God has set me down in the middle of many places where I’ve been able to love people for Jesus’ sake.