Twenty pairs of eyes stared at Grace and I as we stood at the front of the classroom. It was our third night teaching our evening English class to upper-elementary aged students. My sweaty palms clenched tightly to my ukulele.
“Ok students, today we are going to learn a song.”
I write the lyrics on the board:
Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so
Once the lyrics were written, only then did I think to ask the most important question that would make or break this lesson:
“Do the students know who Jesus is?” I asked the translator.
“Yes,” he said.
Oh, good, I thought. Praises!!
But then I could tell he was rethinking his answer.
“I better ask to be sure,” he said.
He asked them in their language, Khmer, then turns back to me and says, “No, nevermind.”
Well shoot. Teaching them the song “Jesus Loves Me” was our whole lesson plan. But it obviously won’t have any meaning for them if they don’t know who Jesus is.
I wasn’t ready for this. *insert teacher panic mode. You’d think that having a Master’s degree in education I’d be prepared for lesson plans to take an unexpected turn. I totally missed the “activate prior knowledge” part of the lesson plan that was pounded into my head throughout college.
Grace and I quickly collaborated as the eager students watched us closely.
We decided to go ahead and teach the song, introduce who Jesus is, and then next week have a more in-depth lesson on Jesus. Oh the joys of having a co-teacher to share in the successes and fails of the classroom.
Word by word, we went over each word until the students knew how to pronounce each fairly well. Now it’s time to sing!!!
Palms sweating due to the lack of air flow in the room, I strummed a C chord on my ukulele as the students started to sing.
Then to an F chord.
Then back to a C, and then to G.
What I thought would sound pretty rough actually sounded decent. What was happening?!
As they continued singing and I continued playing, I looked up from my ukulele. What I saw was beautiful.
All the students in unison, singing the one solid truth they can always hold on to:
JESUS LOVES ME.
How cool. The depth of such an unappreciated, “childish” song was ringing true in the classroom. It suddenly struck me in a new way as well, even though I’ve heard the song my whole life…and I teared up as I thought about the love of my Savior.
The students were singing loud and proud. And when I say loud, I mean LOUD. My ears were ringing afterwards.
I don’t know if they understood completely what they were singing, but I had a moment where I looked at all the students singing and felt such joy. God smiling down. It was a moment of “This is what it’s all about,” and if I could do this every day for the rest of my life, I would be successful.
Lesson learned…Don’t assume someone knows who Jesus is, no matter where you’re at in the world. Be led by the Spirit, and be ready, no, be EXCITED to tell anyone and everyone you know about the Savior of the world, the Lover of your soul. The One who gave His life so that we could have peace with God and have eternal life. Those who put their faith in Jesus have an abundant life to live and get to be with him forever. FOREVER!! :))) Don’t you want to share that with everyone you meet and everyone you know?
Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
