by Skip Asjes
“I’m afraid I’ll wander away from God,” Becky said softly as tears filled her eyes.
My mom, in Kansas City, was housing young teachers from out of state who had traveled from across the country to listen, share and learn about teaching missionally and connecting with Jesus at the same time. We, Dean Storelli, Lori Adams, and I, were helping these teachers biblically to feel valued in the public schools as missionaries to our culture. They affect not only students, but families, the other staff in the building, and ultimately the communities they live in. The scope of their ministry is larger than we can easily imagine. We also encouraged them biblically with the possibilities of “seeing and hearing” God in the midst of the busy-ness of life and the challenges they face.
Dean, Lori, and I were sitting in my mom’s living room with several teachers as Becky confided her concerns with us.
Becky is a courageous young woman who recently graduated from a Nav collegiate work in Wisconsin, and is now teaching 8th grade science on the Texas/Mexican border. Her greatest concern is how to help her students engage in learning. She couldn’t decide whether to teach science concepts in Spanish, so they would learn the concepts; or in English, so they would be better prepared for the all- English high school. Becky was not an education major, and she’s far from her hometown in Minnesota. Her concerns were for the students in her classes, not the obvious difficulties of living in a completely different world of language, climate, food, and customs.
“Where will you go?” I asked in response to Becky’s tearful admission. Gently, I reminded her that Solomon wrote, “Wisdom calls out from the middle of the street, at the busiest intersection.” And David wrote a Psalm that summed up his experience, “Where can I go from your presence, that you are not already there?” Instead of wandering away from God, wasn’t the greatest danger to harden our hearts toward Him, to not look for or listen for Him, I asked? Can we see Jesus in the midst of the busy-ness of life? What did He mean when Jesus said his food was to do the will of Him who sent him?
Becky sent an encouraging e-mail later letting us know she was encouraged and looking and listening for Jesus while she faced the turmoil of teaching and the uncertainty of unexpected teaching challenges.
We want to help teachers like Becky feel important to God, to look for His presence, and connect with other teachers across the country who are similarly engaged in life. These young teachers have chosen to follow God’s leading into a low paying, lowly esteemed endeavor for their careers. These laborers – these missionaries – can be catalytic to the advance of the gospel of Jesus and His Kingdom in kids’ lives, families and communities. It’s a privilege to help them.
Future events like this will be posted at b2g.org or you can contact Dean Storelli.
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