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!
No comments:
Post a Comment