Sometimes all it takes is one thing, one decision, one choice, to move us in a direction. For Lisa Davis, senior M.A. student at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, it all started with one class.
During high school Lisa participated in mission trips—and they claimed her heart. She enrolled in college intending to be a missionary teacher. While at Anderson University, Lisa studied Christian ministries, Bible, and religion, and planned to work in church ministry. While a senior, she took an archaeology class which led her to apply for and receive the Gustav Jeeninga Museum Fellow in 2011. This award allowed her to participate in a dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa for six weeks. She returned to the States and worked as a children’s director for two years, but it was too late.
She had fallen in love with archaeology.
Lisa enjoyed her work at the church yet felt a growing desire to go deeper into the realm of academia that she couldn’t ignore. With the Seminary’s library, Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology, and class options, it was the perfect place for her to build on her biblical studies background as she worked toward a doctorate program, the ultimate goal being to teach Old Testament studies at the university level.
Though her career path is one that navigates through academia, Lisa still has a passion for mission and ministry. In one dream she is working with unwed mothers or young girls with low self-esteem. In another she is adopting and giving children a home. Lisa believes that God is still calling her to where she is at—wherever that might be.
“I try to think about where I am at as a mission field, rather than thinking of missions as taking place in a distant land,” she says.
Now another graduation is on the horizon, and along with that more choices that will guide her down the path God is preparing for her, but Lisa is ready for the journey.
“I am still trying to figure out how everything will fit together and what my next move will be, but I have total confidence that when the time comes I will be able to step out in faith and am excited to see how God will put all the pieces together.”
Written October 2014