Alisha reading a story to the kids
This week and next Alisha, Felicia, Jewels, and I have been assigned to helping with preschool teachers. Felicia and Jewels have been helping one teacher with the five-year-old’s and Alisha and I are helping the other teacher with the four-year-old’s.
We got to school, and were greeted by dozens of smiling faces and “Good morning, teacher” ‘s in little Swazi accents. It was rainy, which meant the kids would be inside all morning, but that was okay—we’d have the teacher to help keep them calm.
Everything was going smoothly as the teacher for the five-year-old’s led them through their morning songs. That was when Alisha and I heard the news: the teacher for the four-year-old’s was going to be absent because she had to take her son to the hospital.
“You can play or do something with the four-year-old’s until lunch at 10:00,” the teacher said to Alisha and me.
I looked at my watch.
8:40
I looked at the ten kids who were staring at me and Alisha, the “teachers”.
I looked at Alisha.
An hour and twenty minutes to go.
Needless to say, the two of us did everything from singing, to having them trace the letter “B”, to having them do T25 exercises, jumping jacks and push-ups (a desperate attempt to tire them out).
That hour and twenty minutes felt more like three hours, and at one point the kids were so wild they were taking chairs above their heads and running through the room. The teacher had to come into our room a couple of times and tell them to behave. By lunchtime Alisha and I found ourselves in a corner camped in two chairs.
Would I have volunteered to teach preschool? No, but God volunteered me. Did it go smoothly? More or less (I can laugh about it now). At the end of day, I’ve done something I would’ve never done if it weren’t for Him.
I once heard someone at a mission’s conference challenge the audience by saying to die to who you are in the States so God can resurrect you as a new creation somewhere else. The scripture that always comes to mind when I think of this is Romans 12:1:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”
The challenge to die to my old self so God can do something new in me, along with Romans 12:1 has come to mind multiple times over these past seven weeks. On a surface level, the idea of death and the thought of being a sacrifice isn’t inviting…but there’s so many more layers to it.
If there’s one thing God keeps pounding into my head, it’s freedom to grow. God wants to give us the freedom to grow in Him…and it’s okay if the process isn’t neat and clean. The more we surrender to Him, the more He’ll stretch and challenge us, and we may find ourselves in situations we would’ve never imagined. However, it’s in these situations where we can depend on His strength and faithfulness.
No matter how long you’ve walked with God, He’ll always do something to surprise you. The more you surrender, the more you’ll be stretched and uncomfortable, but the more you’ll be able to grow. God is the adventure, and He’s never-ending.
