Get to Know: Laura Neal, Nursery and Preschool Director

You're listening to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Join us for an insightful conversation where faith intersects with real life experiences and discover how God is at work in our world.

We're here today with Laura Neal.

She is our new nursery and preschool director.

She started in 2026.

Laura, how are you today?

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm doing great.

So, as is tradition with the show, we typically start with some icebreakers.

However, you just informed me that you don't like icebreakers.

You'd rather go deep, right out of the gate.

So I think the first question I should ask is what is your greatest fear in life?

I'm just kidding.

Oh, okay.

I'm just kidding.

No, I was gonna go there.

Okay, let's do it.

Let's hear what's your greatest fear?

Snakes, spiders, dark.

What are we looking at?

Loneliness.

Oh.

It's not fun.

Are you an extrovert?

No, biggest fear is bugs crawling in my ears.

That is pretty gross.

That is my biggest fear in life.

That is really gross.

Well, so it's tough to come back from that.

So, you know, my next question was gonna be describe a perfect Friday night.

And I don't know if that's a really good way to follow up now.

So No, I can jump.

Perfect Friday night is discovering a restaurant from a different ethnicity.

Okay.

Trying different foods, being with friends, maybe going a walk outside, something that combines new things, exploring friends outdoors.

Any combination of that.

What's a restaurant that you've recently discovered that really piqued your interest?

Peaked your taste buds.

I don't know if I'd say recent, but my favorite like multi or ethnic restaurant is Queen of Sheba.

It's Yemeni food.

Oh I absolutely love Yemeni food.

It's very underappreciated and unknown.

There's one on Summer and there's one in Cordova.

Okay.

Very good.

Very good rec.

We'll have to look into that.

Yeah.

Okay, so again, lighthearted, man.

I've really messed these up.

What when you were a child, what was your dream job?

I wanted to be Vanna White.

That's an awesome job.

That that was my dream.

My sister wanted to be a medical missionary and I wanted to be Vanna White.

No contrast at all there.

No.

That's awesome.

Okay, so we'll do one more.

Actually, we're gonna do two more because I'm really curious how you would answer this one.

So next one is what's an accomplishment that you have that many people may not be aware of?

This can get deep.

Mind is blank.

I mean, I think the biggest thing is some people are aware, maybe a lot of people here wouldn't be aware, is that I was a missionary in Jordan for three years.

We're gonna talk about that in a little bit.

Did you ever win a spelling bee as a child?

I did.

Second grade spelling bee.

There we go.

We found it.

We just uncovered that.

Okay.

Okay, that's awesome.

That's fun.

Okay, so my last one, you're retiring tomorrow.

Somebody comes to you and says, Hey, guess what?

We're gonna all expenses paid.

You get to retire tomorrow.

We're paying for wherever you want to move, wherever you want to live, where where you go in.

New Zealand.

Okay.

What about what do you love about New Zealand?

Everything.

Like even the cows are prettier in New Zealand.

Like the green, the grass is greener, the ocean is bluer, the trees are bigger, the hills are deep.

Like it's just gorgeous.

I was actually lost my job.

I had a grip and expect unexpectedly.

And so spent a month.

I was like, hmm, I don't have a job right now.

So I'm gonna go to New Zealand for a month.

And I stay with friends.

So it was like a l a low budget trip in paradise.

And that's awesome.

It was amazing.

That's so cool.

So do you think about going back?

Is it like an everyday, like, oh man, I gotta get back kind of thing.

Part of it is I also love ticking new dots off my list.

And I so I love the idea of like visiting other places.

There's a lot of places I haven't gone, like Northern Europe, a lot of Europe and South America.

So as much as like I love New Zealand, I also just for visit-wise, want to go to new places.

Makes sense.

Well, I appreciate you going lighthearted with me for a second.

Let's get into the deep darkness.

Yeah, it's actually fun.

It wasn't a scary.

Great.

Yay.

Okay, let's get into the real stuff then.

So let's go all the way back to Laura's very beginning.

Where are you from?

Here.

You're from Memphis.

I am from Memphis.

Okay, so Memphis born and raised?

Yes.

Okay.

So what did your parents do?

Tell me about them.

My dad is a psychologist.

Okay.

And my mom is retired, and she was she taught just about everything for over 30 years, but her specialty was in special ed.

You know, the little I know about your story, I'm picking up a lot on your parents' influence on your life already.

Yeah, that was kind of unexpected.

I always wanted to work in nonprofits and ministry and didn't want to do anything with counseling or teaching.

And my last job was teaching, and my next career is counseling.

And I'm like, hmm.

I can't really get away from it.

It's funny how your parents imprint you like that, isn't it?

Yeah.

It's kind of annoying.

But it's okay.

Yep.

I totally understand.

Okay.

Did you have any siblings?

Yes.

I have one sister.

She lives in town.

She's got three kids.

What what was young Laura into?

What kind of things were you getting into when you were a kid?

Moving.

I was crazy.

I was the like poster child for ADHD, bouncing off the walls, loved to be outside, love to read, love to be creative, do art of any kind, loved animals.

Didn't let big groups are going a lot of places, but I just liked kind of moving and doing things.

Did y'all live kind of in the city limits, or were y'all where you could get out into the woods or something as a kid?

I mean, we had a pretty big backyard.

Okay.

But no, we were in town.

Like I also was homeschooled a couple of years.

And so that gave us a little more freedom.

Like I tried ice skating, did that for a year or two.

I tried every sport, tried many musical instruments and never stuck with anything.

I say I'm ADD even in my hobbies.

I never like perfected anything, just kept switching things.

Was it you asking your parents to do these things, or were they suggesting like, hey, maybe try the piano, maybe go what what was that kind of like I think I was asking.

And they were very open to letting me try different things.

My favorite was horseback riding.

And then after I felt it had a concussion, my kept forgetting to re-up the lease on my horse.

Wink wink.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

So how old were you when this happened?

Probably like twelve or thirteen.

Oh my gosh.

That's horrifying.

Did I mean do you are you do you like horses still?

Yeah.

I like it.

It's still a dream of mine to get back into riding.

Okay.

That's awesome.

Okay, so you were a little bit into everything.

How did you did you like school?

Did you enjoy going to school as a kid?

My parents gave me a lot of freedom to kind of try different schools and different schooling opportunities and listen to what I needed.

And like I sometimes needed things different than my sister did.

And what the school I was at was able to provide.

And my parents were really great at seeing that and offering that.

I appreciate you being honest about that.

That's really great.

You told me earlier that you wanted to be Vanna White growing up.

Yes.

I take it you didn't become Vanna White.

I think she's still employed.

So she is, amazingly.

Yeah.

So you didn't dethrone her.

So what what did your actual path come to then?

I will say when I was so I was like a little bitty when I wanted to be Vanna White.

And I'm talking now because of a lot of people probably have no idea who that is.

Wheel of Fortune, it's still on.

It's great.

Watch it.

But I was probably 12 when I started being really interested in missions.

Okay.

And I mean, I did struggle some in school with friend group issues and things like that.

And just really could sense from a very young age that God was preparing me to work with people from difficult lives and difficult backgrounds.

And was just even at 12, felt like he was preparing my t building my testimony.

And I went to church that had very strong supportive missions, both inner city, in Memphis, in the States, and globally.

And that really affected me and impacted me.

And like I said, from 12, like was really interested in either the idea of inner city missions or Muslim evangelism.

And God has allowed me to be part of both.

Wow.

So was there like a speaker or somebody?

What kind of prompted this desire in you?

My parents always had a lot of missionaries around our family.

My dad was actually born in Sudan.

His parents were missionaries.

And my mom had been a missionary in Japan before my parents got married.

And so we always had a lot of missionaries in and out of our home.

And I really appreciated being raised with that global kingdom perspective that really impacted me.

And then doing different like service projects with my family around Memphis as soon as I was old enough, going on inner city trips really impacted me.

And then there was one missionary that our church supported named along with another single woman was from Australia.

And this other woman was American.

Her father had actually been a pastor at first of end.

So they both had ties to Memphis.

So it ended up becoming a member of our church because she wanted to have a home base in Memphis.

And these two single women started a hospital for the Bedouin people of Jordan to treat tuberculosis.

So that shouldn't have happened.

Like two single women in the 60s, starting a hospital in a Muslim country shouldn't have been possible, but it was.

They wanted to reach the Bedouin because that's a people group that takes longer to be able to share the gospel with.

And so they just had amazing favor.

And over the hospital's been there for over 60 years.

And she passed they're both passed away now.

Passed away last summer.

But the hospital is still going strong.

And just hearing about her commitment and her faith and how the Lord was faithful to that and blessed them and allowed his kingdom to grow through them, despite the fact that it was illegal and should have been impossible, was something that always inspired me.

And I had wanted to visit at some point.

And I was after college looking for an inner city job, wanting to work with my degrees in community development.

So wanting to work with that type of nonprofit, wasn't finding that opportunity and was doing a lot of substitute teaching and nanning, and then found out that they needed a teacher for the missionary kids there.

And it was like, oh, this is why I've been doing so much work in education.

Yeah.

So it prepared me to go and teach there for two years.

I spent another year in the capital city, kind of learning bridges to the to the religion.

Before we get too far, because there's a lot here that I want to unpack that's very fascinating.

So were these women when they were in your church, did they become like mentors to you, or was it kind of looking at them from afar and being inspired by them?

Just looking at them from afar.

Okay.

Yeah.

Just hearing them speak at Sunday night and just hearing their story, what was really interesting.

Did you ever have a chance to tell them how they inspired you?

Not until I was there.

Okay.

I think I was able to tell it and I was able to go to some local weddings with her and get to know her and just hear from her and like sit on the floor and just listen to her talk about the early days and different things.

And it's such an amazing experience.

Did you have a mentor in like high school or anything that was kind of helping you on your missions path?

Or was was that any like a thing or I didn't really not really.

Nobody there?

Okay.

Well, and that's like I want to back up a little bit too and get so did you grow up going to church?

Was that always kind of a thing that y'all grew up in church?

Yeah.

Okay.

And so did was there a come to Jesus moment where you accepted him, or was it just kind of can you tell me how your testimony part of coming to know him?

Yeah, that's a good question.

And it really ties into my job now and a lot of things that I'm very passionate about and intentional with my job because I became a Christian at three.

Okay.

And I really think that I had true faith then and have seen a growth of my faith since then.

So I really do believe that the youngest children really can have a saving knowledge of who God is.

So I'm really intentional with the curriculum and the lessons I build to make sure it's developmentally appropriate, but also making sure that it is who God really is.

I think kids have a higher understanding than we give them credit for often of understanding things.

And so it's really on my heart to make sure that I teach to two, threes, four-year-olds, four-year-olds theologically sound ways of who God is.

Aaron Powell That's really awesome.

We'll get to some of that when we get to your current position.

I feel like we have a lot of your story to unfold still.

So you you have this urge at as a young teen to kind of go into missions.

What did you go into college thinking this is what you were going to do?

What was kind of your career path or your your school path from there?

Yeah, so that definitely helped shape where I went to college for sure.

I found out that there is this college outside of Chattanooga called Covenant College that had at that time a pretty new program called Community Development that you could do either international or domestic-based track.

And so I did I still was interested in overseas missions, but decided to focus on doing more the inner city domestic track and focused on child and family ministries.

And community development is more a holistic way of looking at poverty alleviation.

So that is what I studied and what tracked that I thought I would go down.

Were you like when in high school, when after you kind of discovered this about yourself, were you serving and doing opportunities before kind of going into this path?

Or yeah, I did short-term trips every summer, several around different places in the States, a couple of international trips.

I remember your first mission trip?

My first?

Either nationally or globally?

I can't remember if that one was Baltimore, Maryland.

My family also went, my parents were leaders on a high school missions trip to a Native American reservation outside of or in Washington State.

And so I went with them on that.

And I think that same year, I think I was in seventh grade and also went on a short-term trip to West Virginia.

Okay.

So that might have been my f one of those were my first trips.

But I mean, having we hosted a lot of missionaries and I did some summers where I would volunteer with neighborhood Christian centers as well.

So I mean you were plugged in.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Okay, so when you were in college, did you really feel like, yes, this is the path for me?

This is I I'm doing the right thing.

I say that as somebody who was six months from graduating and realized I don't want to do this for the rest of my life.

And I don't think that's an uncommon college experience for a lot of people.

I definitely had some questioning at times.

I'm a I don't know if I say that.

But I definitely had some questioning at times.

I was also very interested in arts and at times thought about pursuing interior design.

But I really felt called to that path.

And even though I haven't found maybe the job that I expected to find, I'm still really grateful that I went through the path because I learned so much and it really has shaped my worldview about a lot of things and has really impacted how I look at a lot of different situations.

Yeah, that's fascinating.

So when you graduated, what was next?

I know we kind of started into that.

What what happened after graduation?

What were you looking for?

What was your expectations?

Yeah.

So after graduation, I did an internship with refugee empowerment program here in Memphis.

And then I was an AmeriCorps intern in Boston with Truant Middle School Youth.

Then I did another internship and a nonprofit there on qualitative research, but I wasn't finding the type of nonprofits that I wanted to work at.

I knew there were so many great ones here.

My sister was having kids and really wanted to be near my nephew.

So I moved back to Memphis.

And that's when like I had a hard time finding a nonprofit job.

And so for about seven years, I nanny part-time and substitute taught and did that up until going to Jordan.

What tell me about going to Jordan?

Tell me about kind of your heart leading into it.

Was God stirring that in you?

Or what was kind of talk to me, walk me through that.

Yeah.

It was interesting because there'd been other missions opportunities I'd thought about, but really didn't want to raise support because that was really scary.

And this, it kind of piqued my interest because there was a potential that maybe it was funded, it ended up not being, but it got me like in the door to look at it.

But it at first a friend told me about it, and I was, no.

At first my mom told me about it.

She was like, they're looking for teachers there.

And I was like, I don't want to raise support.

She knew I'd always been interested in that work.

And then like a few weeks later, a friend of mine told me about it.

And I was like, okay, maybe I'll look into it.

So my mom was like, You why couldn't you just listen to me the first time?

Yeah.

But then when she realized how close the hospital was to Syria, then she was like, wait, why did I think this was a good?

Yep.

But yeah.

Okay.

So you get there, and what was your first impression?

What was that like getting settled in?

I mean, pretty big departure from America.

Yeah.

I mean, I went immediately to the hospital, which was it's a beautiful compound.

So I immediately moved in the hospital and jumped into teaching.

And so it took me a while before like I was really got to experience the culture.

And so I kind of had a slow cut start to the culture.

Yeah.

And you mentioned you were doing teaching work, correct?

Can you tell me a little bit about what did that look like?

What was a day for you or what kind of work were you doing to give it a little more understanding?

Yeah.

So we had my first year, we had a lot of like preschool kindergarten kids.

So I would spend the morning with the younger kids and then the afternoon teaching a few subjects to like the older elementary and middle school kids.

And then my second year, the older the younger kids were now like first grade, second grade.

So I would sp kind of split my time, but mostly working with we had one other teacher and one mom who helped.

So we would kind of trade subjects and kind of rotate the kids around.

And how many years were you there?

I was at the hospital school for two years, but in Jordan a little over three.

Okay.

What what's kind of the biggest takeaway that God instilled on your heart in that time?

I guess just not limiting him and his ability to move and not stereotyping people or cultures.

Just being open to fascinating.

So what pulled you out of Jordan?

Did the program end and that's why you left?

Or what what was the Yeah, my time commitment and I was looking at another opportunity in Chad to work at a refugee camp for Sudanese on the Sudanese border?

And then my parents were starting to have some health issues and just really felt like they have supported me and just been really great and just felt like God was calling me to be here and to be present for them.

So did what was your next thought?

What did you go into after leaving Jordan?

What was COVID.

COVID.

Oh, so that that's fun.

Yeah, it was super fun.

My like my organization gave me like three months of like like re-entry time.

And that literally ended, I think, a day before the shutdown.

Oh my gosh.

That's wild.

Yeah.

So I can imagine that made things integrating a little more difficult.

Yes.

Okay.

What so what did you do during that period?

Like what would you because my parents had health issues, we did hardcore quarantine.

So really didn't do anything for a year and a half.

And then God's timing is perfect.

And I think the week after I got my Immunization, then I got hired to work at World Relief.

That's awesome.

And what did you do at World Relief?

So I did a couple of different roles.

One was a liaison between Methushelby County and the immigrant and refugee population, helping them get some COVID assistance.

And then also helped pilot experimental program of having the volunte a volunteer team take over all the casework.

So I was part caseworker, part volunteer coordinator for that role.

Okay.

And so trying to track your story, where was New Zealand in all of this?

Is it is it has it not come yet?

Or so that's we were hoping that grant that program would be continuously funded, but it was only funded for one year.

Gotcha.

And so after that program ended, I went to New Zealand.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then came back and immediately started working at a way out, which works with women coming out of exploitation.

Okay.

So I worked there for several months and then was missing working with kids.

And so I had an opportunity to work at New Hope Christian Academy in Fraser, which is a really great private Christian school, high academics in the middle of Fraser.

A lot of most of the kids are highly scholarshipped and was able to teach them art from a Christian perspective and weave in a lot of kind of mental health, identity in Christ perspectives throughout teaching art from kindergarten through sixth grade.

This is like a very broad and almost a silly question, but I want to hear your perspective on what is the importance of art in that kind of rehabilitation, not even rehabilitation, but just like expressing oneself and just like for kids and things like that.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

I mean it's hugely important, especially kids that haven't found their outlet, who don't feel like they have a voice or aren't seen like being able being affirmed in anything is really important.

But also being able to express, like I could go into left brain, right brain things, but kids especially, or just any kind of trauma, is often able to be expressed and realized more in art than in words.

So it's really important to be able to just draw and use color and lines to express things.

And I definitely saw some kids that really did express their emotions and feelings through art.

And then just being able to affirm kids who didn't feel like they were good in something.

I mean, like, no, you're good at art.

And even kids who didn't feel they didn't like who they were, they were picked on, didn't feel like they were good enough, just being able to speak into them God's truth and who he says about them through the lessons was that's all kind of my favorite part.

And so was it that job that interested you in going into psychology or what what was what was kind of that connecting bridge?

Yeah, I I realized I loved doing small group times with kids.

I had some kids that would have like hallway conversations and like mini counseling sessions, and those were the ones that I really loved.

Had one kid in particular having gone through a lot of trauma and just was able to pour into her, and I just really loved that.

And at the same time, like I also missed working with internationals and with women and things that I've been able to do in some of my previous roles, and I realized it's like thinking through the future, just wondering what could connect all these pieces, loving different cultures, loving kids, loving art, loving women, like loving, like caring about people who've been through trauma.

And I was like, counseling.

Counseling's all that.

Yeah.

And so I've even like dug into some things about expressive arts counseling and art therapy and groups, play therapy and different things like that.

And I'm really excited about exploring that more.

So did you sit on this idea for a while, or was it kind of a like the the the light bulb above your head went off?

It's like, this is what I've got to do next.

It it was probably maybe six, nine months.

Okay, close a little less than a year of pretty intently praying, and then just starting to pursue it and open doors.

And the more I like pushed on things, I was like, no, I feel confirmation.

And even when I started my counseling master's program, I definitely was still questioning a little bit.

But then once I got into it and was really affirmed, like, no, you actually do have these skills and these gifts, it I felt like it was a lot of just confirmation.

That's awesome.

And so what brings you to Christ Methodist Church?

Let's let's connect that bridge now.

So, like I said, I've always had a heart for having kids understand who God is from a young age.

I also think that parents should be the epicenter of their children's walk with the Lord.

So have always been interested in like helping walk alongside parents, give them resources and support.

And so as I realized just capacity-wise, ne wanted it was time for me to move away from full-time teaching and just praying through like different opportunities.

The Lord opened an opportunity for me to do a counseling internship, a church health center.

And that is not working with kids, realized I still want to work with kids, but more from an organization curriculum perspective, more support of parents.

And so I was just praying through different things.

And when I saw the opportunity here, I just clicked a lot of things, a lot of my experience, a lot of things that I hold really important are things that I'm able to kind of lean into and bring into this role.

This is kind of getting off topic for a second, but one thing that I'm picking up on your story is you're not afraid to jump into the next opportunity.

It seems like I mean, I guess it goes back to it's for one, the the first question is like the stability of a job doesn't seem to fear strike fear into you.

You seem like you were talking about as a kid, you're w willing to go wherever.

I mean, is that something you're aware of?

Or like is it just kind of a Yeah, it's not something I've loved.

I mean, it's hard being the age I am and haven't had long consistent jobs, but it's something I've leaned into because I now see it as a positive.

Yeah.

Because I've learned so much things from every opportunity that I've had.

And so I'm excited about instead of in the past, it used to be why can't I find something consistent?

Now it's like, what am I going to learn from this opportunity while I'm here?

And what can I bring to the table and how can I put bless others while I'm here?

And being more present and more intentional instead of like being fearful that it could go away or getting complacent because you plan to be somewhere for a long time.

I do plan to be here for a long time.

And I'm very hoping that I am, but it has definitely changed my perspective.

And I'm just very blessed at the wide array of opportunities I've had, and I'm excited about what's next.

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, and I'm connecting the dots with you were mentioning about how parents are the epicenter of like a child's development and these things.

And so when you talk about that experience and that you can instill that, because I mean that's a big part of being in the nursery as a parent with a child in the nursery, is you know, coaching up the parents and leading the parents to help them disciple and equip them to disciple their kids and things like that.

And so I'm just I'm connecting dots here and seeing like, oh wow, you are perfect for this.

This is awesome.

Thanks.

Yeah.

And I'm excited about like connecting with more people.

I've already started talking to Grant and Hannah of how we can connect parents more and just connect resources and what that looks like.

And I'm still like, I haven't been here a whole month, but I'm still like just in the dreaming stages, but I'm excited that this is already a culture for that, that everyone seems to want that and seems to be a place that's ready for that.

Aaron Powell I mean, can you share some of the some of your I ideas or dreams that you may have just so parents can get an idea of what they could be looking at?

Is there anything we can share?

I don't have any yet.

Sorry.

No, maybe maybe let's reframe the question.

I get I'm here less than a month, so that is something that like I need all of your curriculum right now.

Too late.

No, I mean I think maybe just like echoing the ideology that you've shared about like why Sunday morning is so significant for the nursery or something like that.

Maybe we can look at something like that.

Yeah.

I mean, one thing that I've been working on the last few weeks is building the curriculum for Wednesday nights.

And I've paralleled it with what the elementary will be doing on Wednesday nights, which is going through the Lord's Prayer.

And since that's something that the adults do Sunday morning, we want the kids to understand it.

And so I encourage families to talk through the Lord's Prayer and to practice the different phrases at night.

And we are really working through breaking it down so the kids can understand how to talk to God, the importance of talking to God.

And so I'm hoping to find more resources to connect parents with tools of how to communicate with them with their kids in a way that their kids will understand.

That's awesome.

Well, Laura, as we start to wrap up, I just want to say on behalf of the congregation, we're so thrilled that you're here.

We're so excited for all the ministry and experience that you bring, and just really excited to see what God does through your ministry here.

So welcome.

We're excited to have you.

Thanks.

I'm really excited to be here.

Everyone has been so warm and welcoming.

And from my beginning, the word that kept coming to mind was intentionality.

There just seems to be so much intentionality in the church, and I'm really excited for that and excited to step into that.

Awesome.

Well, thank you, Laura.

We appreciate you speaking and excited to have you.

Thanks.

Glad to be here.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ.

To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at Christchurchmemphis.org.

We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.