-
Share your story of how you came to be where you are in Christian education. Have you shared this story with your students?
-
My first experience in a Christian school was a result of God intervening in my life. I had to quit my first job out of school and was jobless for about 3 months. I was very active in my local church and was asked to come work in the office. At the end of the year it became apparent that they were going to need a new kindergarten teacher and they asked me. I did not go to school to become a teacher, but God was showing me a passion for Christian Education. Since then I have allowed God to stretch me and use me for His purpose in the Christian school.
-
I worked in law enforcement for nearly 11 years. During this time God called me to serve as a volunteer leader in our youth group. over the next six years he gave me a passion for youth ministry and discipling students. God started prepping me for a career change and eventually he called me into ministry where I now serve as the spiritual life director at the school and as the assistant youth minister at our church. Our school is considered a ministry of the church.
I share my testimony and this story with every course the first day of course. The cool thing is this was a recent change a few years ago so some of my students now were my middle school guys when I first started serving. My students now have been witnesses to this story first hand and have been a part of it.
-
I have been actively involved in ministry throughout my adult life. Before I was married as a single, I had a Pastor who noted that I was gifted in communicating the narrative of scripture. He asked me to teach regularly. It was after getting married and having children that he instructed (strongly directed) me to be actively involved in children’s ministry. My involvement in children’s ministry grew over time and an opportunity presented to teach Bible in a Christian school. I stepped into the classroom 10 years ago and haven’t looked back. During that time I went on to better equip myself with some continued education at the post graduate level. Those around me that I respect spiritually, as well as the Holy Spirit personally, via the Word, have assured me that the current will of God in my life is teach His Word to the audience in front of me daily. That audience at this time is between the ages of 11-18. Amen.
-
I actually started off as a nursing major when I started college. After two years, God made it perfectly clear nursing was not for me. So, I took some time off from school and started helping at a school for children with disabilities. I started working in the dorms, getting kids ready for school. A year later I also started working as an individual classroom aide. I realized I loved working with the kids in the school. My boss encouraged me to go back to school to get my teaching certificate, so I did. God orchestrated the whole thing. When it came time to do my student teaching, the school I had aided in was in desperate need of a teacher, so they called the school I was attending. We ended up working out a plan where I did my student teaching in a course I was going to take over. The principal of the school was my supervising teacher. After teaching there for a few years, I ended up getting married and moved an hour south. I taught for 2 years in a public school. It was not my favorite experience, but I can still see how God used that time to grow my faith. I then took 10 years off to raise my four children. When my baby was going into Preschool, the school my children were attending was looking to hire a PreK/K teacher. God opened the door and I walked through with confidence. The school was extremely small. We only had a bout 2-3 kids per grade, so as teachers we taught multiple grades in one classroom. Unfortunately, after teaching at Unity for 4 years, the doors had to be closed. Again, God stepped up to the plate for me. It is amazing how His faithfulness endures forever! When we were looking for a school to send our kids to, we toured Grace Christian Academy. We immediately loved the school and what they stood for. They made it very clear they valued academics, but they were more invested in teaching kids to pursue wisdom. My husband and I loved this. We were so grateful to God to leading us to this school. Then again, God opens a door for me. Grace ended up needing a first-grade teacher the year my kids were going to start. I applied, and God again showed up and the job was mine. We are now in our third year at Grace, and we love it. Our kids are thriving, and God is continuing to grow me as a Christian educator. Each week at our staff meetings, our principal asks us, “How are you growing?”. At first, I was very uncomfortable with this. Now I love that he challenges us. After all, if we are expecting our students to grow in wisdom, why are we not expecting the same thing for ourselves.
-
I am constantly sharing my story with my students with their families how God has led me to where I am at that moment. I was raised in a Christian home I went to a Christian school from preschool through high school. After high school I went to the junior college to get my certificate in early childhood. After my first semester I was asked to step in at the school I attended and take over for a preschool teacher who is left. I felt that God was opening a door for me. I worked at the school through the end of the year and I was asked to come back and interview for the position the following year. I was hired back that next year and I attended school until I was finished with my certificate. I stayed and taught in this Christian preschool for seven years, towards the end of my seventh year I felt that I didn’t want to teach this isn’t what God has called me to do I asked for a temporary leave of absence and I went back to school, Follow one of my other passions. While I was off for those 10 weeks and finishing up courses I was contacted by the principal from the school and church where my aunt had attended. She asked me to come in an interview and I told her no thank you I am done teaching and she encouraged me and I prayed and God open that door I ended up teaching at that school for 18 years finishing my degree in teaching kindergarten. God has moved me a few times . Each time that God has moved me he is open the door for me to teach in a Christian environment. Each one of those schools that I have taught at has strengthened me and my faith not all of them have been easy some came with major challenges but as I look back on the journey that God has put me on I see the many many blessings the children who were on the spectrum who reached back to me yesterday and said I can’t believe he is going to be going into middle school. He would’ve never made it if you did not give him a kind and caring Christian environment to grow and to be who God has created him to be, his mom sent that to me and it shows me that no matter what God places me where he wants to be and that he is already handpicked each child for me to mentor love and pass down my philosophy to them. This year is the first year that I have not been working in a Christian school my husband job moved us out of Southern California where I was born and raised to Texas, there have been some lonely days which I found myself volunteering at a school and through that God has called me once again to start teaching again. I believe God has a plan for each one of us As educators to keep passing down her story so that students see it’s not always a straight path and it’s not always easy but God has a plan and we need to have faith and trust in him.