Courage and Time

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.                                                                                   (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Courage and Time

            We are now in the midst of the Christmas season, a season for giving. Recently God distributed a wonderful gift.  It snowed in south Texas, something that only happens once every ten years!  Many students got to go outside during the school day and had the opportunity to experience REAL snow. For many of them it was the very first time in their lives. What a gift it was for all the teachers to see the joy on the children’s faces and the wonder in their eyes as they went outside to see and touch the snow, to hold out their hands and catch the large beautiful white flakes and to open their mouths and taste it.  A few lucky ones made and threw small snowballs before being caught by their teachers. Some of the students were amazed that when the snow melted on them it was wet.  The only snow they had ever experienced was on TV.  What a difference there is between knowledge of something and the experience of something. 

            God has given us eternal gifts we experience daily.  He has given us physical life, every breath and every heart beat. He has given us His living Word, the Bible, to guide us (Basic Instructions Before  Leaving Earth).  He has given us eternal life through His Son, Jesus. He has given us His Holy Spirit which fills us with supernatural gifts and life sustaining fruit. He has given us our jobs in education. These are impressive gifts He has given us. 

            Christmas is Jesus’ birthday.  What are we going to give Him this year?  Have we really thought and prayed about this or have we gotten caught up already in meeting all the expectations we have for ourselves and that others hold for us as related to this season? There are three gifts we have to give the Lord this year and every year - our time, talent, and treasure.  I encourage you to be a wise man or wise woman and give Jesus more uninterrupted time this year, specifically in your professional life.

            Jeannine Hillis is a junior high teacher who three years ago gave Jesus the precious gift of more professional time which is making an eternal difference in the lives of others.  Like many of us, her life’s plate was full and overflowing.  At that time she was a resource special education teacher. Staying afloat with class lessons and meeting all the district requirements for paperwork, duty, etc. was difficult.  She had a husband and two sons at home to care for also.  She was deeply involved in church activities that consumed much of her time beyond family and school. She was also the president of the parent support group of her son’s boys’ choir that traveled all over the city, state, country and world.  Busy, busy, busy.....

            One day during school, a seventh grader came up to her between classes and asked, “Mrs. Hillis, I want to start a Bible club this year. Will you sponsor it?”  Jeannine’s unspoken first response was, “No way. You have to be kidding me.  I have no time for that.”  The Holy Spirit, however, prompted her to accept the position.   Jeannine told the girl, “I will sponsor your club if you get the signatures of twelve students who are committed to starting and sustaining the club.”  The next day the girl was at her doorway with a piece of paper signed by twelve students.

            The rest of this story is history. By the end of the same year the club had grown from 12 to about 50 to 75 students. The following year, with the support of several youth pastors and four or five more faculty sponsors, the group had grown to 150 students who met weekly at school, during the school day at club time, to encourage one another in their faith. Jeannine gave God a barley loaf offering of her professional time and, as a result, God used it to spiritually feed hundreds of students. Some of them are hearing about and being led to Christ for the first time in their lives within a public school.

            By reading these devotions each week you are giving God some time.  Most teachers average a 45 to 55 hour work week.  To give the Lord 10 to 15 minutes of time daily for committed prayer or 30 to 60 minutes on a designated day before school, after school, or during lunch means giving him just a 1% to 2% gift of your total professional time. Our employers require us to attend workshops, team meetings, faculty meetings, partner school meetings, vertical team meetings, and PLC (Professional Learning Community) meetings.  Jesus is not demanding. He is simply asking with an outstretched nail pierced hand for a little more time.  He is saying, “I want a PSC (Professional Spiritual Community) at your school. Will you help me start and sustain one this coming year?”       

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for the gift of time you have given us. We freely give more of our time back to you.”

Application:  Write on your computer screen, lesson plan book cover, or chalkboard how many minutes per day or week of devoted time you are going to offer God in prayer where you work. Give it to Him in the new year.  

Sharing:  I am committed to giving Jesus ____ minutes of my undivided attention and time at school each week.

CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE!  (For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) #14

Prayerfully dependent,

K

http://www.one16pray.com

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement.

•      Go to www.one16pray.com for more information

•      Go to www.ceai.org for more information (which will point you to the above address!)

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 (we have 205!)

•      Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray

•      Look for the prayer prompts on the 1:16 PM website or Facebook page.

May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry byclicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school. 

Courage to Arise and Shine

Arise, my people!  Let your light shine for all the nations to see!  For the glory of the Lord is streaming from you. (Isaiah 60:1) LB

Courage to Arise and Shine

            At the age of fourteen, shortly after making a commitment to Jesus Christ, Virginia Kingston heard a foreign missionary speak at her church. As he spoke, the Lord birthed a dream in Virginia’s heart that she too would one day work in the foreign mission field. Within a challenging blended family Virginia made her way through junior high and high school. She attended a small Christian college where she majored in English and PE.  Inquiring into the mission field at that time, she discovered that single females were not being accepted for foreign mission work unless they had nursing degrees.

            Virginia spent the next thirteen yeas of her life personally, professionally, and spiritually maturing while working at four different private Christian schools. During this time she earned her master’s degree in education while teaching and coaching all grade levels from 5^th to 12^th grade.  Finally, at a teacher’s conference in 1984, twenty one years after the birth of her dream, Virginia discovered a mission society looking for American English teachers to send to China. Recalling this time in her life Virginia states, “The Lord used the twenty- one years of spiritual, personal and professional maturing through many different trials and experiences to prepare me for the foreign mission field. I would not have survived in China if I would have gone there straight out of college.”  Virginia sold almost all of what she owned, gave away her old car, and set out on the adventure of a lifetime, moving into one of the most religiously repressive communist nations of the modern world.  After being in China for two months she knew she had been transplanted right where God wanted her, where she could work for Him.

            Twenty-five years later, Virginia has served in three different public Chinese universities.  God has given her immense favor with the students and her administrators. She not only teaches English but several American culture studies including a course, The Bible as Literature, which she proposed to her director several years ago.  She holds a low key Bible study class for students on Sunday evenings. She has “loaned” hundreds of Bibles to students during her many years of service. (It is against the law to give them away.) Some of the students she serves have made life transforming decisions to follow and serve Jesus Christ because of her quiet unassuming witness.

            In addition to her work overseas, Virginia has also become a foundation stone of the Christian Educators Association International network in the Houston area. Every summer Virginia returns from China for several months. During these months she is actively collecting books from the local used book stores to send to different ministries in Southeast Asia.  Through her sponsoring churches, she has collected hundreds of shoes to send to Honduras so the children there can attend public schools. She has purchased and collected backpacks and school supplies for students which were donated to Common Threads, an organization serving the clothing and school supply needs of students in poverty. Virginia is also an advisor for this group and has written devotions for publication.

            When asked about the courage it took for her, as a single woman, to leave her culture and family behind to serve Christ in a communist nation, Virginia humbly shrugged it off saying, “It’s not courage. It’s just obedience.”

Virginia is a large lighthouse courageously shining out over a dark landscape, sweeping the land fearlessly while standing for Christ. In contrast,  think of all the Christian educators here in America, the home of the free and the brave, and we see lamppost after lamppost lining packed urban highways but few are fully illuminated. Most are shaded with fear, timidity, and busyness.  The students, the vehicles, rushing beneath them and around them must use their own headlights for illumination. Some vehicles have no headlights and there are some stretches where there are no lampposts.  In these areas there are many accidents and injuries.

            God’s message today is, “Fear not and get connected. Arise and shine in the darkness.” Regularly pray alone in your classroom and also with other believers where you work. Jesus told us to pray using both of these methods. Many of us are operating at only half power.  Get on God’s grid.  Watts up!!! Arise and shine!!!   

Prayer:  Lord, arise in us. Get us connected to you and one another in public schools. Shine forth your glory!

Application:  Make prayer a priority in your professional life.

Sharing:  The times I am committing to pray alone and with other believers at work are...

CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE!  (For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) #13

 Prayerfully dependent,

K

http://www.one16pray.com

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement.

•      Go to www.one16pray.com for more information

•      Go to www.ceai.org for more information (which will point you to the above address!)

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 (we have 205!)

•      Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray

•      Look for the prayer prompts on the 1:16 PM website or Facebook page.

May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry byclicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school. 

Courage to Do Less

“He must become greater; I must become less.”  (John 3:30)                                                              

Courage to Do Less

            We live in a culture dominated by the word more.  Success is not measured by obedience to God or by the fruit of the Spirit (peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, etc.) one bears.  Success is measured by getting more money, more information, more square feet in your home, more friends, more cable channels, more members in your church,  more pixels on your digital camera, more minutes on your cell phone, more power on your computer, and more miles per gallon.

            Education reflects this.  More children need to pass state exams.  We need more technology, more information, more programs, more team meetings, more faculty meetings, more district meetings, more money, more paperwork, more accountability.... MORE!  MORE!  MORE! Do you hear Satan screaming like a spoiled child, “I demand more!  Give me more!” Everywhere everyone is rushing through life seeking the illusive More which they can never catch. More has become a deity and the heart of More is greed. 

            Do you see Jesus standing on the side of this busy freeway?  He is holding up various signs as we pass.  Slow down!  Pull over! Turn off the radio and TV! Put your cell phone down!  Turn off your computer!  The cars are rushing by at such high speeds few can read the signs.  Few acknowledge, except on Sunday mornings, that His directions are even worth heeding.  Can you read His lips?  He is saying, “Less is more.  Less is more. Come follow me and I will give you rest.  I will give you peace.”  He is also asking us some questions, “Does more and more make-up make you more beautiful?  Does more and more food make you healthier and healthier? Does more and more luggage make your vacation better?  Does more and more furniture make your house more comfortable?”

            A junior high math teacher, Vilma Rivera, felt like she was drowning in the More Ocean at her school.  What she was being asked to do and what she was asking herself to do were truly impossible using the time and resources she was given.  She was spending hour after hour beyond the school day preparing lessons, grading papers, attending meetings and completing paperwork.  Her joy and love of teaching had both been drowned and she was in need of rescue and resuscitation.  She was mentally and physically exhausted, totally drained. She was not physically exercising or giving her growing family at home and her church family the time they needed.

            During this period of her life, while in prayer, the Lord spoke to her heart saying, “Work one hour beyond the school day and let the rest go.  Watch what I will do.”  At that point she was ready to try anything so she began to obey that directive. She worked only one hour beyond the school day giving 100% to 110% effort while she was there and then she let it go.  Things weren’t perfect.  Many things were left undone at school yet she renewed her commitment to her family at home, the church, and the regular exercise she needed to stay healthy.

            When she came back to work each day she had much more energy and a more positive attitude.  She was much more productive.  Joy and creativity which had once been the trademark of her teaching style returned like a flood. Although some things, mostly paperwork, were left undone, the quality of her lessons improved greatly.  God always gave her the time to catch up on her paperwork later.  By doing less she received more.

            There are numerous Biblical examples of doing less resulting in deliverance or victory. The Old Testament warrior leader Joshua could have stormed Jericho’s walls and put up siege ramps to topple the enemy, but God said, “No.” God said, “Less is more.” God told him to march around the city, blow some trumpets and shout. Wow! It worked!  The walls fell down.  Gideon, the least of his family, was called by God to be a military leader and to save his nation from foreign invasion.  He gathered over 20,000 troops to fight with him but God said, “No.”  God said, “Send all but 300 of them home.  Surround your enemy with torches and trumpets and watch what I will do.” Wow!  It worked.  Peter tried to protect Jesus by using the power of his sword against the enemy and cut off a soldier’s ear.  Jesus said, “No.  Less is more.”  He told Peter to put up his sword and then healed the man’s bleeding ear.  A family gave up their picnic lunch one day.  They chose less and, as a result, Jesus fed over 5,000 people.

            God cries out for obedience to Him in His schools.  He cries out, “Seek me first and I will add all things unto you, such as high academic achievement.”  He also says, “Don’t believe that just by doing more you are going to get more.  Stop serving More. I will give you the courage it takes to do less. Obey me and watch what I will do.”

Prayer:  Lord, show us what you want us to do.  Show us in what areas of our profession we need to do less.

Application:   Write down one or two areas of your professional life where God wants you to do less.  Obey.

Sharing:  Share these areas with a close trusted Christian friend where you work. Hold each other accountable.

CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE!  (For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) #12

Prayerfully dependent,

K

http://www.one16pray.com

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement.

•      Go to www.one16pray.com for more information

•      Go to www.ceai.org for more information (which will point you to the above address!)

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 (we have 205!)

•      Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray

•      Look for the prayer prompts on the 1:16 PM website or Facebook page.

May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry byclicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school. 

Courage and Aging

“They will still bear fruit in old age...”  (Psalm 92:14)                                                             

Courage and Aging

            Vickie, a regular writer for Teachers of Vision magazine, sat with Pat at the kitchen table in Pat’s quaint country home for the last time. Pat gazed down at the rough draft in her hand, the last devotion she was to ever proofread for Vickie, and then offered it to her.  Vickie took it from her hands and looked at it.  As usual, it looked like someone had bled all over it with red ink.  Pat was from the old grammar school. During her tenure as a public school teacher, English teachers did not grade holistically.  Strict, well defined standards for word usage, punctuation, and capitalization were taught to students and corrected on all English papers.  That’s why Vickie loved Pat as a proofreader and used her in addition to the computer’s grammar and spell checks. All Vickie’s wrong tenses were corrected. Split infinitives were spliced back together. Sentence structure was changed to make the piece flow smoothly.  In every sentence where Vickie referred to God as he, Pat always insisted it be capitalized in order to honor and reflect the greatness of God. No computer spell check ever did that for Vickie.

            Pat’s eyes lingered upon the devotion and then tentatively looked up at Vickie. Pat had a difficult time looking Vickie in the eye and Vickie could tell something was wrong. A solitary tear ran down Pat’s cheek as she spoke to her long time friend saying, “I have been diagnosed with dementia and I will soon be moving with my husband into a transition assisted living facility.”  They both knew her role in the Christian Educators Association International had finally come to an end after many years.  They shared some more small talk about CEAI and the new facility she would be moving into with her husband.  Vickie said goodbye to her and gave her a lingering last hug.

            Pat Thomas was a retired elementary school teacher, now deceased, who served the Lord and many children for many years at Jane Long Elementary in Richmond, Texas. Vickie doesn’t remember how and when she crossed Pat’s paths, but she remembers how fascinated Pat was with the vision and mission of CEAI.  Pat was fascinated by the CEAI ministry and on several occasions said, “I wish such a group was available when I was teaching.  I needed a group like this to support me.  I never knew such a group existed.  When I was teaching no one ever encouraged one another in their faith.” After learning about the ministry she said, “How can I help?” 

            Pat, in her retirement, then began making up for lost time in serving her fellow educators by encouraging them in their faith.  The Houston Area Network of CEAI immediately put her to work and she became a foundation stone of the ministry. Her most important role was serving as an intercessor, a prayer warrior for the group.  She knew who the real director of CEAI-Houston was, Jesus Christ, and she petitioned Him regularly on behalf of teachers and students. Pat was a personal friend to many who kept telling members the value of the ministry and encouraging them to keep pressing on when they became discouraged.  Vickie’s young children came to affectionately know and love her as Grandma Pat.  She served faithfully for years as the CEAI-Houston Network treasurer and was one of the largest financial donors in the group’s history.  She was also the proofreader for all newsletters and devotions that were sent out by the ministry. She was a woman of spiritual and academic excellence.  During her period of service with the CEAI-Houston Network she helped provide hundreds of Bibles to youth, shoes to hundreds of children in Honduras so they could attend public schools, finances to support a ministry to run-away youth in inner city Houston, and support for a Christian English teacher serving in a Chinese university. She helped provide hundreds of teachers with quality devotions that encouraged them in their faith and showed them how to stand, walk, and follow their Savior into their public school classrooms each day and yet honor the laws regarding separation of church and state.

            About a year after saying goodbye to Pat, Vickie received an encouraging letter from her.  It was upbeat in content and crafted with beautiful penmanship and grammar. Then several months later Vickie received another letter very similar in content. Pat had forgotten that she had sent the first letter. Vickie was doubly blessed by the second letter and placed both in her personal keepsake treasure box. Even as Pat ran the last lap of her life’s race with crippling dementia she was telling Christian educators to take courage. Wow!

            The Bible says, “The righteous will flourish…and will still bear fruit in old age… (Psalm 92:14).  Pat is a living testimony of this truth.  May each of us remember, like Pat, that after we retire from teaching in the classroom, we may still bear much fruit for Him in His schools.      

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for Pat’s example.  Help us bear much spiritual fruit in education now and after retirement.

Application:   Become active in a local Christian educators association before and during your retirement years.

Sharing:  Who is an aging person who has been an inspiration to you and why?

CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE!  (For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) #11

 

Prayerfully dependent,

K

http://www.one16pray.com

PS. Don’t forget to spread the word about the 1:16PM Prayer Movement.

•      Go to www.one16pray.com for more information

•      Go to www.ceai.org for more information (which will point you to the above address!)

•      Visit,  "like", and add comments the 1:16PM Facebook page.

•      Sign up for text message prayer prompts from Remind 101 (we have 205!)

•      Follow us on Twitter for the prayer prompts @one16pray

•      Look for the prayer prompts on the 1:16 PM website or Facebook page.

May God bless you with success His way this 2013-2014 school year.

Note: To more fully understand the 16-9 Movement, please read the first blog entry byclicking here.

Christian Educators Association International is the only professional association in the United States specifically for Christian educators in public schools.  CEAI protects our members first in prayer, next with excellent professional liability insurance and other benefits while helping them live out their high calling as a Christian in the public school.