My teammate Becca and I wanted to be intentional with our time teaching this month. We didn’t want to just teach some basic English principles and then walk out of their lives. We wanted to leave our students with something they could carry with them the rest of their lives.
We knew we had to teach English while we were here but, when we sat down to create a lesson plan for our 5th and 6th graders we ultimately knew we wanted to teach them how to dream big and believe in themselves.
We spent the last two weeks talking about various occupations available in Cambodia. The English lesson being verbs and adjectives that described those professions. We had them create sentences to get them thinking about what having those jobs actually looks like and to get their wheels turning.
Today I had a conversation about dreaming and how sometimes we allow ourselves to believe something is not a possibility for us. I reminded them how amazing God is and to trust in that. If we do not buy into the circumstances the world has dealt us anything is a possibility.
I explained to them in America a common question is: “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. We spent some time discussing how as a young child our answers are colorful and full of dreams and as we grow the color starts to fade as our answers conform to our capabilities and what we feel the world is calling us to be. I made them promise me they would continue to live our of a place of possibility and not circumstance. Then I asked them “what do you want to be when you grow up?”, here are our 6th graders answers:
Tyrone – When I grow up I want to be a teacher because I want to teach children how to use to the computer.
Cammie – When I grow up I want to be a nurse because I want to help people.
Sredda – When I grow up I want to be a missional doctor because I want to help sick people and talk about Jesus with them.
Lucy – When I grow up I want to be a missionary because I want to talk about Jesus with others, help save souls, and worship God all of my life.
Sarah – When I grow up I want to be a missional teacher because I want to teach children English, Math, Khmer, and about the Bible. I will be a great teacher and a great daughter of God.
Patrick – When I grow up I want to be a missionary because I want to teach guitar to others.
