Before she became the first African American woman to lead an Ivy League institution, Ruth Simmons was a student from a low-income family in Texas. Her mother died when she was 15, and her father didn’t know what to do. She said her teachers became her encouragers. Ida Mae Henderson was the first educated person Ruth Simmons ever met. “She had this lilting voice that was full of wonder. She loved us. She inspired us. She never said what I could not do. If I am here today, it’s because Ida Mae Henderson started me believing I could do anything.”[1]
Ida Mae was Ruth Simmons’s “Barnabas.” He was known as the “son of encouragement,” but encouragement is more than a “pat on the back.” To be a “Barnabas” is to advocate for someone, serve as a reference when no one else will, and point you in the right direction. Who is your Barnabas? Can you be an “Encourager” to someone else?
[1] Wallace Terry, “The Helping Hand,” Parade Magazine 12/22/02, pp. 4-5.