I should’ve been a teacher. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would have enjoyed it immensely. In the past two weeks of teaching English to Cambodian young adults, I have found myself growing in respect for educators. Teaching is a literal pouring out of yourself into another person. It’s empowering. I lov
e taking my small understanding of adverbs and simple past tense verbs and putting that together in sentences and breaking it down so my students can understand. And I love when they ask questions. Sometimes I can see the wheels turning in their heads when the pieces start to fit together. It makes me feel like I’m doing something right.
Last week our class discussion took an interesting turn. At the end of class as we worked on an exercise in the textbook, we were to conduct a survey of our entire class asking the question: “Will the future of the next generation be better or worse than today?” I gave the class a few minutes to think about the future
of their country and the hope of the next generation. Much to my surprise as I polled the class, every single person believed that the next generation of Cambodians will experience a better future than they currently have.
I was so impressed by the faith of this class. That they didn’t look out at the street littered with trash or the neighboring buildings that appeared ready to collapse without notice. They refused to focus the visible. There was an unseen hope that they all believed in- more than they believed in the things they could see.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1
I took adva
ntage of this spark in their hearts and began teaching on this verse. Class ended and picked up the next day with a Bible teaching on men of faith (Hebrews 11) who believed God- more than they believed circumstances, more than they believed what they could see and more than they believed themselves.
I’ve discovered something that I love doing. I love speaking life to others, and watching as they come alive with the realization that someone believes in them and believes in their dream. My challenge to my students was to believe that the Lord has even bigger dreams for us than we have for ourselves and in the surrender of our dreams to Him, He gives back more than we can ask or imagine.
My challenge to you… dream big, you might just get it ALL!
