Regent memories:

In general, I remember enjoying the intellectual stretch of studying at Regent, and how the words and content of my classes intersected deeply with my experience. I still appreciate the engaging teaching and approachability of faculty like Dal Schindell, Jim Houston, John Toews, Linda Cannell, and Loren Wilkinson.

In particular, I remember many life-altering encounters with Jim Houston. These took place in numerous settings—the classroom, the chapel, his office, his home.

One early encounter proved especially stabilizing for my studies. I met up with Dr. Houston on the lawn after the first chapel of Fall semester. He asked how I was, and I told him I was a bit overwhelmed and nervous. He looked at me lovingly and replied, “You’re nervous because you’re proud. Where you were prior to coming here, you were confident and known and quite good at what you did. Here, you will be one of many students, and you will probably be quite average among them. Why are you here?”

That directed insight on the lawn helped deliver me from the worst of the angst of academic competitiveness, acting as something of a true north star during my four years of studies at Regent.

Into the desert:

Not long after I finished at Regent, I found myself in a spiritual desert the likes of which I’d never experienced. Dashed vocational hopes, the silence of God, physical exhaustion, unemployment, financial stress—they all took a toll. I found myself falling back on more words of wisdom from Dr. Houston, who told me, “You need to stop being a God-pleaser—stop pleasing God.” I found that I could scream out my anger at God, and he could take it. I waited, and shed some illusions, and clarified some priorities, and, eventually, found that God does not abandon us in the desert.

Doug shares more of his story in Thoughts on the Desert Walk (originally published in February 1994, in Volume 2, Issue 1 of Stimulus, a New Zealand journal of Christian thought and practice now published by Laidlaw College).

Further on:

Some vocational touchpoints since graduating from Regent:

1. My wife Catherine, our three children, and I spent two years living in Wellington, New Zealand, where I was engaged in a contract in theological research related to rethinking “popular evangelism.”

2. I served as an Associate Professor at Briercrest College in Saskatchewan for five years.

3. I founded Doug Reichel Wine Marketing Inc. in 2004.

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