I entered the Foreign Service (U.S. Department of State) in 1966 after one year at Union Theological Seminary and two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia. My assignments were mainly in Africa, including Senegal, Liberia, Botswana, and Sudan. I served as U.S. Ambassador in Guinea (1990–1993) and Senegal (1996–1999). Between stints, I was Special Presidential Envoy for Liberia (1995–1996), working with African leaders to craft an agreement to end the civil war in Liberia. I retired from the State Department in 1999.
During this period, I was an active layman, involved in various overseas churches—Baptist, Mennonite, Episcopalian—and then at a United Methodist Church in Montgomery County, Maryland. Beginning about 1997, I began occasional preaching. For more than 20 years, I have preached several times annually at Chevy Chase United Methodist Church. In that context, I decided to renew my high school acquaintance with Greek through two semesters at Wesley
Seminary, under the inspired teaching of Dr. Carla Works. A subsequent effort to learn Hebrew was cut short after one semester when I was recalled to duty at the State Department as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Government on Darfur during 2011–2012. My study of Greek has aided my
understanding of the New Testament and has informed the lay preaching, which gives me enormous satisfaction.