Hi I am Tameka and welcome.
First, I would like to apologize for this week’s blog being late. Thank you for your patience, your reassurances, and your prayers. They were well received and deeply appreciated.
This past week also marked the end of another wonderful Vacation Bible School. While we didn’t have as many children as we had hoped, we had exactly the children God intended to be there. Sometimes we measure success by numbers, but God measures faithfulness. Even if only one child walks through the doors, that one child is worth every lesson prepared, every prayer prayed, and every hour invested. It was truly a blessing to spend the week ministering to them.
What a whirlwind these past couple of days have been! This month has been a special one for our family. On the 12th, my baby girl, Dominique, celebrated her 16th birthday, a milestone that fills my heart with both joy and amazement. Happy Birthday, Dominique! This month also marks the birthday of David’s firstborn daughter, reminding us once again how quickly the years pass. Watching these young women continue to grow into the people God is shaping them to be is both exciting and emotional. As parents, we celebrate these milestones while quietly wondering where the years have gone.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, I was blessed to take a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty. As we passed several Navy ships, I couldn’t help but laugh. After serving three years in the Navy, I joked that this was probably the closest I had been to a Navy ship in years. Life has a funny way of bringing back memories when you least expect it.
To top it all off, I completed another seminary course this week. While Dominique was at her driving lesson, I sat in my car putting the finishing touches on my final assignments. By God’s grace, another class is complete, and now I prayerfully wait, hoping for that “A.”
Needless to say, it has been a full season, filled with celebrations, ministry, school, family, and more blessings than I can count.
Yet, in the midst of all the busyness, God was quietly preparing my heart for a lesson I wasn’t expecting. It didn’t come through a sermon or a classroom lecture. It came through an ordinary conversation that left me asking a question I haven’t been able to shake:
Who is discipling the next generation?
Scripture: Paul Meets the Athenians
When Paul arrived in Athens, he found himself surrounded by a city full of idols. Everywhere he looked, people were devoted to something, yet they did not know the One True God. Rather than avoiding the city or condemning its people from a distance, Paul walked among them. He observed. He listened. He took time to understand the culture before speaking into it.
Eventually, Paul was invited to the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill, where philosophers and curious minds gathered to discuss the latest ideas. Luke tells us that the Athenians “spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21, NKJV).
As Paul looked around, he noticed an altar inscribed, “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” Rather than beginning with condemnation, Paul began with something familiar to his audience. He proclaimed that the God they worshiped in ignorance was the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who gives life and breath to all things. Paul explained that God does not dwell in temples made with human hands, nor is He served as though He needed anything. Instead, God desires that all people seek Him, for “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28, NKJV).
Paul concluded by calling the people to repentance because God had appointed a day when He would judge the world through the Man He had raised from the dead, Jesus Christ.
When the people heard about the resurrection, their responses were mixed. Some mocked Paul. Others said they wanted to hear more. Still others believed his message, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
Paul left Mars Hill much the same way he had entered it, faithfully proclaiming Christ. Some rejected the message, some remained curious, and some believed. The results were in God’s hands.
Folklore: Stories That Stayed With Us
Growing up in Jamaica, our elders rarely handed us a lecture. Instead, they handed us a story.
Through Anansi, through proverbs, and through tales passed from one generation to the next, they taught us lessons about honesty, humility, perseverance, wisdom, and respect. Long before I understood the theology of discipleship, I experienced what it meant to have truth passed down through stories.
Many evenings were spent listening rather than reading. Stories were shared on verandas, around kitchen tables, at family gatherings, and sometimes around a campfire. Long before stories were written on pages, they lived in the hearts and memories of those who told them. In many ways, our stories became our classrooms.
As children, we often laughed at the cleverness of Anansi or listened intently as an elder recounted a story from long ago. We didn’t always understand the lesson. Sometimes, we thought it was simply entertainment.
Then life happened.
Years later, we would face a difficult decision or walk through a painful season, and suddenly those stories would come rushing back. What once sounded like a simple tale became a lesson in wisdom, perseverance, humility, or integrity.
Perhaps that was the beauty of folklore. It was never just about telling a good story. It was about shaping a people, preserving a heritage, and passing on truths that could be remembered long after the storyteller’s voice had grown silent.
Reflection
As I reflected on Paul’s visit to Mars Hill and the storytelling traditions of my own childhood, I couldn’t help but notice something they had in common. Both recognized that people are shaped by the stories they hear and the voices they choose to trust.
A few weeks before Vacation Bible School, my daughter asked if she could visit a friend’s house. Like most parents, I wanted to know a little about the family, so I reached out to her friend’s older sister. Out of curiosity, I visited her social media page.
To my surprise, I found a young woman using her platform to answer questions about God. She wasn’t trying to gain followers or become an influencer. She was simply sharing her faith and pointing people to Christ.
I remember smiling and thinking, What a beautiful way to use a platform that is often criticized.
A few weeks later, during Vacation Bible School, a young man asked me, “What’s the difference between us and Catholics?” As we continued talking, he shared that much of what he knew had come from TikTok and Instagram.
His question stayed with me.
Not because he was asking questions. Questions are often where faith begins.
What stayed with me was this: If that is where he is searching, who is meeting him there?
As I continued to reflect, I realized this isn’t just one young man’s story. Many congregations today are praying about how to reach the next generation. Some have thriving youth ministries. Others have only a handful of young people. Still others are wondering how to reconnect with a generation that seems increasingly absent.
That realization brought me back to the same question.
Who is discipling the next generation?
Growing up in Jamaica, our elders understood something we sometimes forget. Stories shape people. Through folklore, proverbs, family conversations, and shared experiences, they passed along values, wisdom, and lessons that remained with us long after the stories had been told. Many of us didn’t understand those lessons as children. It wasn’t until life presented us with difficult choices that we suddenly remembered a story we had once laughed at and realized, That’s what they were trying to teach me.
Today, our young people are still listening to stories.
The storytellers have changed.
The gathering places have changed.
But the need for truth has not.
Perhaps we spend so much time asking whether social media is good or bad that we miss a more important question: Where are people searching?
Paul found people searching in Athens.
Our ancestors found opportunities to teach around kitchen tables, on verandas, at family gatherings, and around campfires.
Today, many conversations begin with a swipe of a finger.
The methods have changed.
The mission has not.
Paul did not change the message to fit the culture. He carried the message into the culture. He entered the place where people were asking questions and faithfully introduced them to the One they did not yet know.
Perhaps that is what God has been impressing upon my heart these past few weeks.
Not, “How do we get the next generation to come to us?”
But, “How can we faithfully go to them?”
As Moses reminded the people of Israel:
The places where we sit, walk, and gather may look different today than they did in Moses’ day, or even in our own childhoods, but God’s calling has never changed. We are still called to place His Word on our hearts and to faithfully pass it on to the next generation, wherever we find them.
Grace Across Borders: Biblical Lessons and Global Legends 
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