Park Cities Presbyterian Church (PCA)

My nickname is Debby

By Deborah Massie Lacy

Published November 1, 2009 in Witness

For several years, I have been thinking about teaching English as a Second Language somewhere around town. The thought flitted through my mind, “Hmmm, I might be a blessing to someone.” And that's right about where it ended. It reappeared a little later: “Gee...that would be a good thing to do. OK, what's on TV tonight?”

On Sunday mornings I would sit in my spot in the pew and listen to Kingdom Moment announcements about PCPC ministries and think, “Gee, I should help out with that. OK, let's see, what hymn do we sing next?”

One September Sunday morning, Carol Baker and Pat Sargent announced that they needed people to teach English as a second language right here at our church. I thought, “Oh boy, God, please don't hit me with that brick You've got aimed at my head—I hear You.”

I signed up.

Then panic began to set in. I said to my son, “What was I thinking? I am not a teacher!”; to which my wise son replied, “Mom, you know the language—they don't. They want you to tell them what you know, and that's it.”

I showed up the first day to teach my intermediate class and thought, “How in the world will I do this? These are adults, not children! Where do I start? What do I say? And how on earth am I going to fill an hour and a half when I have pretty much never ever stood at a podium before?

“Lord, help me!”

I decided as good a place as any to start might be to explain what we do with our names in English. I began by writing my name on the whiteboard: Deborah Phyllis Massie Lacy. I then pointed to each component and said:

“Deborah is my first name. My nickname is Debby. My middle name is Phyllis, so my middle initial is P. My maiden (my name before I was married) was Massie. My husband's name is Lacy, so, now my last name is Lacy. You may call me by my nickname, Debby.”

Hands went up. I looked at one of the students and said, “Yes?” And then a most interesting and wonderful thing happened. A woman looked at me and said, “Teacher, please explain again, nickname.”

She called me TEACHER? She called ME teacher! That was it for me. At 1:00 in the morning after the class, I was still wide awake planning what to teach them next.

God must be smiling at me and shaking His head. Every time I set out to be a blessing, I am blessed a thousand times over. Then it hit me—that was the brick! And then I thanked God for His aim.