The Contemplative Activist
The Rev. Dr. J. David Muyskens ’54 marched for civil rights. Along with a Catholic priest and a Lutheran minister, he helped unseat a corrupt government in Union City, N.J., and protested at school board meetings on behalf of exploited residents. He fought to preserve a New Brunswick, N.J., historical district while insisting that low-income residents who wanted to stay could.
And then came the chest and abdominal pains. A perceptive doctor asked the activist Reformed Church pastor, “Are you trying to do it all yourself?”
Muyskens slowed down, and in doing so discovered the early Christian practice of centering prayer. Fifteen years later, in 2006, Upper Room Books published Forty Days to a Closer Walk With God, Muyskens’ reworking of his seminary lectures on this silent method of fostering an awareness of God’s presence.
The recent, sudden deaths of both a son-in-law and daughter-in-law tested Muyskens’ need to act.
“I was feeling like God let us down, and I better get busy. It was centering prayer that helped me realize God continues to be at work even though we don’t understand what’s happened.”
Now a spiritual director in Grand Rapids, Mich., Muyskens can’t quite be called a former activist. He writes, “Far from taking me out of the world of work, contemplation gives me a way to enter into it fully.”
by Amy Scheer
Picker-Upper Person
A conversation Glenn Van Ekeren ’74 had 30 years ago is still making a difference in his life—and in the lives of those he influences.
Van Ekeren was driving with Bob Hoogeveen ’57, his supervisor at Village Northwest Unlimited in Sheldon, Iowa, and lamenting the characteristics and talents he didn’t possess.
“Bob asked me, ‘When do you plan to start using what you do have? God has given you some gifts; why aren’t you focused on them?’”
Hoogeveen was what Van Ekeren refers to as a “picker-upper person,” someone who “accepts people for who they are, tries desperately to understand their world, and then encourages them to be all they were created to be.”
Van Ekeren wrote about “picker-upper people” in 12 Simple Secrets to Experiencing Joy in Everyday Relationships, one of three books he published last year.
And spurred on by his mentor’s counsel, Van Ekeren has adopted a life mission of positively impacting those around him. His other books, 12 Simple Secrets to Finding Fulfillment at Work and 12 Simple Secrets to Staying Calm in a Crazy World, continue that theme.
Van Ekeren is already thinking about his next book—on his philosophy of leadership. The advice of one of the chapters? Believe in people.
by Duane Beeson
All in the Family
Melissa (Lovegren ’96), Wendy (Hensley ’96) and Danyale (Temple ’96) Tamminga found a new way to keep in touch with college friends—add them to your family. Today the three are not only still best friends, but also sisters-in-law.
“We used to say, ‘I hope we marry guys who get along’ and here we married brothers,” Wendy says with a laugh.
Their friendships started long before they met their future husbands. Danyale and Wendy were elementary classmates in Iowa but lost touch when Wendy’s family moved to Washington. Wendy met Melissa in high school, and they decided to room together at Northwestern. When they moved into West Hall, Danyale lived a floor above them.
During college, Wendy started dating Micah Tamminga, who was a family friend. But Micah lived in Washington and Wendy’s family had moved back to Iowa.
“So Wendy came home with me one summer to be closer to Micah,” says Melissa. “He would come over to hang out and bring his brother Uri.”
During their senior year, the friends took a road trip to Washington, where Danyale met Jesse, the youngest Tamminga brother.
Now the three families live within driving distance in Washington and have a combined total of 10 children (plus one on the way).
“We’re all very close. I never imagined our lives would intertwine the way they have—that my college friends would be my kids’ aunts,” says Danyale.
by Emily Hennager ’06
Great Engineering
At first glance, Bukky (Akinyemi ’04) Harthoorn’s dual roles as mother and full-time chemical engineer might not seem to have much in common. But while they can be worlds apart, she says both offer rewarding glimpses into the unfathomable, multi-dimensional nature of God.
“[Motherhood] has given me the ability to briefly understand how much God loves us,” says Harthoorn, who, along with her husband, James ’01, welcomed their daughter, Adalie, last April. “I just love her beyond my comprehension, and that gives me a glimpse of how much God loves us.”
In her highly technical work as a chemical engineer at Jacobs in Baton Rouge, La., Harthoorn finds herself relying on the Lord for wisdom, patience and swift problem-solving. When she goes to God daily with complicated challenges—anything from designing pressure release valves to sharing her faith with a co-worker—she finds comfort in the fact that she is working for the “master engineer.”
“The whole world is engineering. I get a hint of God’s work and get to take part in it a little bit,” she says. “He’s the best engineer; it’s nice to have him on your side.”
by Sarah Asp Olson ’03
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