As I am diving into this new life of World Racing I know this is where I am supposed to be now. It is actually quite liberating and reassuring to be at peace with knowing where you should be at what times. As I am leaping into this new adventure of traveling and proclaiming the love of Jesus I just can’t help remembering my current/past love. For the past nine years I have embraced God’s call on my life for teaching in the inner city. That has been my ministry and heart. I loved the black and bilingual children that I hopefully equipped, molded, and taught in their young lives. Mind you, it was at many times a battle field. A battle for them to survive, to get used to structure and not chaos, to even want to embrace learning and change, and lastly to respect authority in a world where they rarely have constant adults around to give it too. For me it was a battle of the mind. I defiantly needed daily reminders that I wasn’t in battle with flesh and blood but with evil and principalities. That in actuality it wasn’t the students fault but the unfortunate oppression and hold that the enemy has over their family life. In this past year I defiantly had to be in constant reminder of the fruit of the spirit that lives in me. I had to rely on and claim the power of self control (for my words to be controlled and positive), patience, gentleness and kindness. There were many times where I had to stop say a quick plea to God and ask for Him to take over because I was about to lose my mind 🙂 .
Every day of the nine years I never once woke up not wanting to be there or quit. That to me is a testimony to God’s calling. The days I have had, have been filled with many great memories. Helping a child learn their sounds, sight words, and heading toward reading fluently creates in me a sense of joy and success for both me and my students. The laughter and ideas that come out of young minds is so refreshing and naïve and the thought concepts that come out of these 6-7yr olds are sometimes astonishing. These years truly have challenged and grown me. This last year had really been exceptionally challenging. I felt as if the Lord called me to missions at a perfect time. I was getting burned out and not finding the joy and contentment in teaching. I was saddened by it but at the same time felt that it released me to serve fully on the WR. While I was at training we went on an ATL (Ask the Lord). We simply went out and asked God if there were certain people that He wants us to pray with or speak words of truth and love to. Three of us were led to go to a school. We went in and asked if there were any teachers that needed help with anything. The secretary told us that they have an amazing parent volunteer system that helps with that. I was certainly a bit jealous 🙂 .
We were somewhat disappointed because we felt as if God pointed it out to us. As we were leaving Molly and I (a teacher-finished up her first year) felt a renewed sense of hope and love for this profession. We both were tired and felt far removed from having a desire to return. Walking through the hallways and seeing the bulletin boards gave us a sense of excitement. A healing occurred toward having a desire to return if asked. I love how God can use anything to speak to our lives. It just confirms how personal He is to all of us in our life moments. My last thoughts and reflections were on whether the door will be closed forever on teaching. It has been wide open and has been such an integral part of my life for so long. It will be exciting to see how He continues to guide me through this process of where I should be and whether my calling will be towards fulltime missions and a life of loving other black children in Africa. I have learned that in my life He defiantly works in ways of opening and closing the doors. And that my job is to just to wait, be patient, and trust. So I say bring it on I am ready!
Room 212 in K.B.White Ele.
Where I served for the past four
years teaching first grade with amazing dedicated teachers!
