”You will NEVER be a teacher,” were death shaking words I began to rehearse in my mind and believe.
Sure, school was difficult, and having a 1.67 GPA my freshman year of college definitely didn’t help in my confidence to succeed. I was almost kicked out of college for having such low GPA.
Inoted somehow was put on academic probation for a whole year. Now not doing my homework, skipping or falling asleep in class and socializing way too much at night didn’t seem so cool. Yeah, I was that girl that was watched like a hawk for my grades.
I needed at least a 3.0 to stay in the teaching program. I knew I was passionate about children and teaching. It was something I always dreamed of doing.
I was determined that those words spoken over my life before, about never being a teacher, didn’t have to be true.
So I spent hours upon hours of reading, missed a lot of social events because I was basically studying my brains out just to pass classes.
It was difficult, but what seemed the most disappointing was receiving my tests back and still getting low grades. My effort seemed to go completely unnoticed and failing tests or getting low grades made me think, where are you God?
I thought all my life I was called by God to be a teacher. Now all of a sudden, it seemed all my effort was going against me.
That’s when I realized, I was doing this all on my own strength. It was all on my own effort and not with the strength that God so graciously provides.
So, I sought help. With wisdom from my professors, many tutors, and friends speaking truth and instructing me, I graduated with a 3.2 GPA.
No it’s still not as high as I believe it could have been but it shows something: God’s faithfulness permeates this whole story.
Not only did that keep me in the teaching program, BUT by God’s grace got a job in the teaching profession.
I moved states and for two years taught at a school in North Carolina. The school is rated 10/10 on Great Schools.
I worked with top educators who displayed compassion, dedication, knowledge, skill, and wisdom to help students succeed to the best of their ability.
Trust me when I say this, it was so difficult this past June to say goodbye to such phenomenal staff, students, and parents to come on the World Race. But today, I stand in awe that I am here in Malawi, Africa using my passion for students to teach English and instill wisdom into their lives.
School here is different. The students go to school Monday-Friday sometimes Saturday from 7:30-12pm. They learn English and Math.
The school we are working with is a Christian Private School. They have 9-10 teachers, over 100 students and 1 headmaster (principal).
The first day we started, I walked into the Standard 4 room and received huge smiles and surprised faces from the students.
They were so excited to see an American come to the class. I went up to the teacher, shook his hand, exchanged greetings, and then he said, “You teach?!”
“They’re yours,” he said with a grin.
I looked at the students and sensed their eagerness to learn. Then I looked around the classroom. No, they didn’t have smart boards, laptops or even WiFi for that matter. Wow, I thought, am I enough to do this?
I’m so used to all of the technology to assist my teaching. That’s when God told me the one chalkboard, several short pieces of chalk, a handful of paper, and a multiplication & English chart were enough.
Three hours passed as we went through the Bible story of Jacob and Esau, practiced reading, and got a little creative with math.
We played a relay race, did jumping jacks and push ups to help learn Multiplication facts, and practiced word problems using mental math. Their eagerness to join in with the lesson and make learning fun brought joy to my soul.
After a full day of teaching, I had to take a walk. I just cried. I missed my students, missed my staff and missed just teaching in general. I realized that those challenging times in college studying for what seemed like forever were worth it.
Never will I ever be a teacher I thought because there was a time I believed those lies spoken over my life. So with gratitude I want to say THANK YOU to the people that challenged and assisted me to pursue teaching.
THANK YOU to my professors, tutors, family, friends and staff from Alston Ridge for helping me succeed and be where I am today.
Seeing children’s lives changed and their knowledge continue to grow is a passion in my heart.
Ultimately, I thank God because without Him I’d be nothing. Without His strength in school and choosing faith over fear I wouldn’t be teaching in Malawi today.
I pray that you who are reading this will be encouraged to press into the Lord. He is the one that helps us in our weaknesses and gives us strength to accomplish all things in His name.
But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak them I am strong.”
{1 Corinthians 12:9-10}
