Why Pray?

WHY PRAY?        

            My name is Angel Weber, and I have been a special education teacher in public education for  15 years. Holly asked me to share how prayer has impacted my life and my role as a teacher.

            To be very honest, it has only been about the last 2 years that prayer has become such a large part of my profession and my life.  Being part of the public education system, I have always struggled with my inability, in my profession, to outwardly and directly show and teach about Jesus. I found so much joy in teaching Sunday school and being part of Vacation Bible School and youth retreats and I wanted so much for the students I teach at school to have exposure to those same experiences. I often felt guilty for not pursuing a vocation in Christian education where I could outwardly and directly teach about Jesus.

            Since I have been coming to St. Andrew’s, I am so grateful to have been connected with and surrounded by wonderful, caring, and fun people. I have come to realize that I absolutely can outwardly and directly teach about Jesus through every little thing I do and say and in every interaction I have. I am more inspired than ever before to be an outward Christian that teaches about Jesus through the little things and even more importantly through the prayers I offer up.

            Prayer has become an important part of how I do my job because it seems like the one thing I can do to control such an out of control, frustrating situation. In my short 15 years of public education, I have experienced layoff notices, budget cuts, school board meetings, schools closing, educational lawsuits, common core, students with unreasonable parents, student deaths, teacher deaths, the list goes on and on…and none of these things are in my control. Prayer offers some semblance of control. Well, really...the sense of passing it off to the person who is really in charge...our loving Lord and God.

            Prayer has also impacted how I interact and care for the students and families I interact with. It has helped me to see them as people, as individuals with their own stories and paths, and as children of God. Many of the students I have worked with have been victims of poverty, neglect, emotional, and physical abuse.  Prayer seems to give me the comfort of knowing that they are in God’s hand and that there is a plan, and that I am just a small part of it; it has helped me to not be so judgmental and less frustrated…most of the time.

            The weekly connection card has been huge part of the increasing role of prayer in my life. It is so comforting to know that other people are praying… I pray for many of the students I work with. I pray for their home life and for them to feel the presence of Jesus. That they will know that Jesus loves them, and that the Lord will give them strength to overcome whatever challenges they endure. I pray for school board members, superintendents and principals that their decisions will be wise and of good intentions. I pray for fellow teachers that they might overcome their own personal challenges, and seek to build connections with kids. That they might have the understanding of what a profound affect their everyday interactions have on the students they work with.           

            I feel strengthened in the Lord when I pray. I feel confident that I can face the challenges that God has planned for me. Prayer has helped me be more patient and wise in my decisions, and I cannot help but feel the power of His will in the choices I make.

God is at Work, Even in the Public School

 Written and Submitted by Laura Moore

I hadn’t planned on becoming a teacher when I started attending college.  My mother was a preschool teacher; I had absolutely no desire to go down that same road.  Yet, it’s so obvious to me now how God places just the right people in our lives to help shape us and guide us down the path we were meant to follow. 

As part of a Psychology class during my first year of college, I chose to do service hours working with an Autistic boy, Wesley, instead of writing a research paper (yes, I find it funny how God can use my lack of interest in writing to shape my future).  Spending time with Wesley, a Kindergarten student at the time, opened my eyes to the fact that I enjoyed working with children and how rewarding that time felt to me.  I decided I wanted to become a teacher.

After getting married, moving to San Diego and then to Oregon, I finished school and became a first grade teacher.  In May of this year I completed my fourteenth year of teaching first grade for Tracy Unified School District. I would love to say how awesome I have been at praying for my students and school all of these years; but that would be misleading.  Honestly, most of the first ten years of teaching, I felt like I spent all of my time working to keep my head above water and crying out to God for help (quite often).

During the 2012-2013 school year I had the great privilege of teaching the sweetest class of first grade students.  They were a quirky bunch, each with their own very distinctive personalities.  One of my students was a precious little girl named Conchita, known to her family as Kiki.  Conchita was very small for her age, but feisty.  She made friends wherever she went and loved to have others push her on the swings.  In October, it became obvious to her family that Conchita, who had been born with a heart defect, was in need of another heart surgery.  Her health failed and she went in and out of the hospital; she was even approved to be placed on the list for a heart transplant.  This little girl, who had the biggest, most loving heart of any child I had ever met, needed a new heart.   

It was during this challenging time that I truly turned to God in prayer.  I didn’t understand why something so tragic was happening to this wonderful family, but Lord, what could I do to help?  So I did my best during this time to be a support for the family.  Our class donated gifts and money for the family to help make their Christmas special.  My son Dustin and I were able to visit with Conchita and her family in the hospital the day after Christmas.  I got the call from Conchita’s mom less than two weeks later that her precious daughter had passed away. 

Telling my class of 30 first graders that their friend had died was the hardest thing that I have ever had to do; I spent a lot of time in prayer the night before and that morning.  Despite the fact that I could not verbally reassure my first graders that Conchita was now in the arms of Jesus, I felt his presence in Room 6 on that day.  The students and I found comfort in helping Conchita’s family.  Thankfully, I had become close to Conchita’s family that year and was able to share with them my faith through emails, notes and visits.

It was last summer that God truly put it on my heart to start a Bible study for teachers at my school.  I had seen a friend of mine struggle with health and family issues and Bible study seemed like the perfect way to offer support and hope.  I had no idea when we started reading Why Pray? together in the fall of 2013 how God was using this group to reach out to more than just one of us.  Out of the seven of us in the group (three of which did not attend a church), we all needed support and prayer for different reasons:  one was suffering from health issues, several others family problems, another was in the process of buying her first home, still another’s daughter had a difficult time giving birth and recovering from it and I was having an extremely hard time with one of my students.  Taking time to gather together, study and pray was exactly what we all needed. 

I’m not going to lie to you, last school year was a complete challenge to me as a teacher.  There were days that I just wanted to quit.  I had a student that had major behavioral issues that challenged me from the first week of school until the very last day.  Yet, God surrounded me with a wonderful support group of teachers, family, and the students in my Bethel class to listen, give me advice and pray for me.

As I look forward to the upcoming school year which starts in August, I am certain that God will be at work.  My goal is to turn to Him in prayer for the students in my class, for my fellow teachers and for our school.  I may not be able to get up and teach my students about Jesus with words, but I can be His hands and feet; even in the public school system!