I was delighted to meet Sandi Dalton sometime last year when I visited Chef Benjamin Messaoui’s French Corner Bakery (in Durham, North Carolina). There she was behind the counter, greeting customers Bon jour! I was happy for Benjamin to have Sandi at the counter, and happy for Sandi to be countering in so fine a bakery. (Benjamin’s interview was published on April 15.)
Over the course of many returns to Chef Benjamin’s bakery, I learned enough about his new assistant to want to learn more, and to realize that our readers deserved to know Sandi too. So, I asked her if she would be willing to answer some questions, which are included here in italics.
Sandi, one question I’ve never asked you: How did you learn about there being an open position at the French Corner Bakery? Did you somehow meet Chef Benjamin even before the question of a position came up?
I had only met Chef once before I applied for the position. I had heard from one of my dance friends, Savanna, that the bakery was hiring, so I applied.
Savanna? I remember her well. What’s “dance class” about?
Savanna and I met in a worship dance team led by a lady from my church. I had been part of it for about 12 years. I have always been a ballerina of some sort. I was even trained en pointe for a few years, but I had to stop when I went to college.
You and I were talking one day about what work we did as teenagers. Chef Benjamin worked in a bakery, I worked in the alfalfa fields loading and hauling bales with my father, and you said you worked in a Chick-fil-A. Would you care to tell us more about that?
I worked at a Chick-fil-A from my sophomore year of high school till my sophomore year of college, about six years in total. I loved my coworkers and the mission of the company, and I think it was because of that experience that I have so much fun taking care of people at the bakery.
Chick-fil-A may just surprise you. They believe that their purpose is “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”
I whole-heartedly agree with this. I want to glorify God myself and be a positive force in the world and on everyone I meet.
Have you worked in other retail businesses besides Chick-fil-A and the French Corner Bakery?
No, but my work history is rather eclectic, and sporadic. If a job sounded informative or fun, I probably got involved in some way.
I took a lot of unpaid or practicum jobs in college. I hosted a college radio program, I worked as a boom operator for a film crew, I built sets for school plays and worked on a service team for orientation, just to name a few.
“Service team”?
My college, the Moody Bible Institute, has a pseudo-fraternity of students called Sigma Phi that work during orientation and on move-in day to welcome students, give tours, answer questions, and help the new students acclimate to living in a big city. In return we receive a small stipend to help us pay for books. It was hard work moving students into dorms but it was always a pleasure, and the team also had the privilege of designing T-shirts for the new group of students. There are still a handful of students on campus who call me mom when I go back to visit.
That all came about because of the Grace of God and my love of radio. I decided that I was gonna go to Moody Bible Institute when I was seven years old, shortly after I accepted Christ. I had a wonderful role model named Marge Campbell, a missionary supported by my church. Marge ministered in Uganda and I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be a missionary just like her. I still do in fact. I also loved listening to the Christian radio station WCRF out of Cleveland, where I heard an interview from a few missionaries who said that the best-trained missionaries were Moody Bible Institute students. That is how I chose MBI. I wanted to know the Bible, with the aim every day of telling others about Jesus.
MBI wasn’t easy, though: I was a difficult child to teach, and I believe that it is only by the Grace of God that I was even accepted into the MBI program.
Attending a Bible institute indicates a pretty serious devotion to the Bible, or maybe to evangelizing. Would you care to share more about “where you were coming from”…and “where you want to be going” when it comes to the Bible?
For a “simple” answer to this question you could just put a link to the Apostles’ Creed. It is not a devotion to the scriptures – which are a love-letter – it is a devotion to a true and living Lover. Jesus, who, even though he lived, died, and was resurrected 2,000 years ago, is still alive and lives within me.
I believe that the Bible applies to individuals and to the church today and can be understood in the context of its history. I am still surprised that so many people who identify as Christians and are in the church still don’t read their bibles. I believe that if you identify as a believer in Jesus, then you must know His word.
I know that my education is not complete, which is why I give myself time to be in the scriptures every day. I want to know them like my Bible intro professor, Dr. Saur, knows them – able to recite verse and address from memory, in context. That sort of biblical knowledge comes only with diligent study over many decades. I am on a long journey, but it is a journey that will bring me closer to the only one who truly knows me.
I don’t think I ever told you that I attended a divinity school when I was 22 years old. It was Presbyterian, in New College of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. I didn’t last beyond one semester, though. It became painfully clear that that wasn’t my calling. Did you ever have such doubts during your time at Moody? What kept you going?
Full-time ministry is not for everyone, nor does God call everyone to be pastors or spiritual caregivers. However, He does call everyone to be ambassadors.
I can imagine it was tough for you to be in such an intense program and then find you were not called to that side of ministry. I had a few doubts as to my calling during my years at MBI, but I had three things going for me. One was a family of believers praying for me; I could almost physically feel them lifting my burdens to God in prayer. Two, I knew from my grades in high school that I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, and so I knew I was there for a reason. Three, I had my own thick-willed stubbornness. I had chosen this, I wanted it more than anything, and I was gonna get through it “goshdarnit!”
I remember, after writing the longest paper of my life, walking to Lake Michigan at midnight, taking off my shoes and socks and wading into the water thinking, “Well, I have given all I can, Lord, you can take me now.” I was so dramatic, and quite silly, since MBI was just the training camp for what God has for me.
There were extremely rough days where it felt like my faith was being given a grade. It never was, but every success and every failure was hard work. Discipline was key.
It behooves me, as a matter of editorial “full disclosure,” to clarify that my doubts weren’t about “sides of ministry” but about Christian belief altogether. But that’s another story….
I seem to recall learning also, on the day we met, of your familiarity with the fact that another graduate of Moody Bible Institute, New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman, is a professor at UNC in Chapel Hill. Do you remember when you first heard of Professor Ehrman? Was a big deal made of him at MBI when you were there?
Bart Ehrman was mentioned by my apologetics professor in my last year at Moody. I am aware of him but have not yet read any of his books. I plan to, however, because it is so important to keep a dialog going, or faith as well as intellectual debate will stagnate.
I know from my own reading about Ehrman, and from reading a few of his books, that he, like me, is no longer a believer, but says he is an agnostic. I always wonder what Christians who continue to be as Christian as Ehrman was when he started out think about Ehrman’s “falling away” from Christian belief. What do YOU think about it?
As a Bible-believing Christian, the best answer I can give is to point to scripture. One of my favorite books of the New Testament is Letter to the Hebrews. Throughout it the writer gives encouragements to the congregation (in Jerusalem, scholars believe) to keep the faith and warnings about the consequences of falling away. I personally think that the action of the church ought to be that of Hebrews 3:12-14:
12. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.The writer of Letter to the Hebrews goes on to warn them again, but I believe that as long as there are questions, and as long as people are seeking answers and have not hardened their hearts, then today can always be a day of grace and reconciliation.
13. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. [English Standard Version]
How can someone at peace with his unbelief (like Ehrman presumably, or myself certainly) determine whether he has “hardened his heart”? What do you mean by that?
Personally, I define hardening one’s heart as being unwilling to consider change no matter what is presented. Therefore, anyone who is an unbeliever but still has an open mind about the possibility of God or is still willing to be a part of the discussion with Christians or those of other religions, then their heart is not hardened. If you cannot hear or consider a Biblical view or other view without anger to your fellow man then I think hardness has set in.
I am currently working towards serving as a missionary full time with Trans World Radio, a mission organization based here in North Carolina. Chef has been gracious enough to give me this job for a time so that I can sustain myself while I reach my preliminary goals. My ministry right now is building my support team and just being a member of my local church, serving my community, and making Jesus known.
In a few years, I see myself producing Christian audio programs for broadcast here in the States as well as abroad. I see myself telling stories and writing. I see myself in a marriage with a wonderful Christian man and perhaps making plans with him to serve overseas. I see God establishing His legacy in my life. I have a page on the Trans World Radio website.
What gets you up and going in the morning?
Stories. I start my mornings in prayer and listening to the radio or a podcast, and it is the stories I listen to that wake me up and put me in a great mood.
I used to have some pretty terrible insomnia as a little kid, so I would wait up till 3 a.m. and listen to a dramatic radio program called “Unshackled,” which calmed me and I would fall asleep – but never before I heard the end. Story is the greatest form of communication because we are all in one.
You told me recently that you have visited all but two of the lower forty-eight states and you want to see them all, plus Alaska and Hawaii. How did you manage to travel that much already – I mean, at your young age?
I actually visited the 46 states in the first year of my life, as my parents toured me around to visit friends and relatives. My dad traveled a lot for work and my parents’ choice to home-school me and my siblings gave us the freedom to travel. I love traveling, getting to know new places and people. There are so many places that I love in the United States. As I grew up and my family grew to include three more kids, we would usually set aside about three to five weeks out of the year to join my dad wherever he happened to go. As a kid my favorite cities to visit were Chicago, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Nashville, and, before we moved down here for good (when I was 13), Durham, North Carolina.
Durham was always important because my parents met here while my dad was in grad school for chemistry at UNC in Chapel Hill. The met at Cole Mill Road Church of Christ, and every time we were in town my dad would retell the story of seeing my mom from across the sanctuary and thinking that she looked cute.
We traveled a lot of the southwest while I was in high school, starting from here, going though Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, turning around at Las Vegas, and going south to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and on though Louisiana, Arkansas, and back through Tennessee on the way home, hitting all the historical locations and national parks. It was a wonderful whirlwind of a summer and I kept track of our route using a laminated map I bought along the way and a bunch of colored Sharpies. When I got home I used it as an outline to tell all my friends about the trip.
Have you about done all the traveling you want, then?
Oh, no! I want to go back to all the places I’ve mentioned, especially now that I am an adult and can choose what I go see. I have also traveled overseas in South America and the United Kingdom, and I would like to share the locations I love in those regions with my family and friends – if money were no object. My biggest dream is to go to Israel and the Holy land, and possibly to Petra in Jordan. I think it is important to learn as much as you can about the world no matter where you live. I just happen to be a hands-on learner.
Where were you from, originally?
I was born in Pittsburgh but I am not sure I would say I am from there. I have an aunt and uncle still in the Pittsburgh area, and I have fond memories of visiting my grandparents there when they were still alive (a memory that I regret my younger brothers do not have), but where you are born and where you are from can be two very different things. I am really from a tiny town about an hour and a half northwest of Pittsburgh, a town called Mercer, Pennsylvania. That is where my childhood development took place, it is where I built forts in the woods, where I would terrorize the livestock on my friend’s farm, where I buried my first pet, and where I professed faith in Christ. That is home for me, the place where I was built into the person I am today.
Who are your favorite kinds of people? Who are your favorite people?
Everyone is my favorite type of person once I get to know them. If you are not actively doing evil to someone when I meet you, I will probably end up having a good conversation with you. I think I must have one of those types of faces that make strangers comfortable. I talk to a lot of strangers. (Sorry, parents.) I don’t think I have the apprehension that most people have when it comes to talking to new people.
Caring for people can be tricky, helping them get the things they need or helping them avoid things that they want but don’t need. Doing that is hard, but talking to them, being a listening ear, that is not so hard – maybe just because of my personal pursuit of stories.
I guess I have a few favorite people: my family, my church family, my college, work, and childhood friends, and my wonderful boyfriend, Paul. They are the people I would want to plan a heist with or write a story about. The stuff that ends up in my ministry newsletters is usually from, or inspired by, these people.
“Ministry newsletter”? Is that for the mission organization you mentioned, for your church? Who’s its audience, and do you receive letters to the editor?
Mostly it is for people who are partnering with me in my ministry. It is how they know where I am with my goals and how to pray for me. It is important for me to do this. A lot of the conversations I have with people end up inspiring some of the content. I address questions or comments either privately (one on one) or in the next edition, as I choose.
Are there some questions that YOU would like for me to have asked? Or that you would like to answer, at any rate?
Please ask about my three siblings, a sister and two brothers, all younger than me. They are the color in my world. I can always talk loads about them.
Okay, what are the three most important things they have taught you?
My sister Lyndsey is in her early 20’s and she has taught me over the years to be bold and adventurous. She has been spending the last six months doing ministry in eastern Europe and I can’t wait for her to return with stories to tell. When we were young and before the boys came along, our days were always filled with imaginative play and story sharing. Now as we are growing I am so excited to see where our lives are taking us and no doubt it will be full of surprises and adventures.
Adam is the next youngest, 19. Adam has taught me grace. Sometimes it is hard being a teen boy in a family of mostly grown women, he makes me take a step back and watch my words so that love comes across. He is a skilled metal worker, and is taking a much different path in his education than I did. It is a blessing to see Adam come home with something new he has made and explain all the processes he is learning. He is broadening my horizons.
Cooper is the youngest, a charismatic 15-year-old. This kid has charm like you wouldn’t believe and has taught me that the humorous answer is usually the best one. Last week I dropped this kid off at prom and I thought “Wow, we are almost a family of grown-ups.”
Then Cooper did something goofy and made his date laugh and I thought, “Well, almost.”
Together my sister and brothers have taught me just how important it is to remain friends with your siblings. As you grow you will only ever have those you have grown up with who will truly know where you have come from. I have observed many siblings in turmoil and I pray that mine will remain strong in our relationships as we finish school and form families of our own.
| Copyright © 2018 by Sandi Dalton & Moristotle |
very, very nice. Never assume that "nice" is not high praise. Someone close to me taught me that, over 37 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Susan. And Susan, I love your pointing out that "nice" CAN in fact be high praise. I love that. Excellent interview, Morris.
ReplyDelete