A group of young college and career men and women went to Newark to serve and man was it an awesome time! We show up just as the kids are showing up and we signed some paperwork and then had our little orientation. Then we finally got to start getting to know the kids. There were only two girls there this morning and about eight boys, which was perfect because our group was nearly the same number! Well, as soon as I started playing a game with one of the girls, I was whisked away by one of the teachers of the school. She goes to my church and although I don't know her, I felt like I did about 30 minutes later.
She took me on a tour of the school which has about ten teachers and eighty students. They have to combine both Kindergarten and first and then fifth and sixth grade because they do not have enough teachers for all of the students. As we were walking around she said, "You should consider working here." As we were walking one of the students walked with us as I got the grand tour and she asked if I was going to be one of their teachers. I can't tell you how I felt at that moment! These last few weeks of unemployment have been hard, and my heart was just tugged so hard at that moment because here is a student who really wants to learn and I've only known her for ten minutes and she already wants me to come and be one of her teachers. So, now I've got this little voice in my head telling me that I should be asking for an application, but another saying, What are you talking about, this is Newark, this is an inner city school, you can't handle this!
Wow, sounds like some spiritual warfare if you ask me. So, we continue our tour, I get to meet another teacher, and hear more about what it's like to be a teacher at that school. Let me tell you it sounds like an amazing experience that is incredibly rewarding, but at this moment I can't determine if this is something that Meaghan wants or if this is something that God wants.
After my tour I go back downstairs and the kids are playing games so I join in. I felt like I was in gym class all over again. We played steal the bacon, I'm pretty sure I haven't played that since elementary school with Mr. Slack. It was pretty fun, minus the fact that I was wearing clogs and I didn't exactly where the best clothes for playing body contact type games. Next, we got to listen in on the prayer requests of the kids, and the worship time and the introduction of the teaching lesson. Once that happened we started getting ready for lunch. We were serving the kids hotdogs.
While some of the members of our group were cooking the rest of us took a tour of the upstairs section of the building. We got to see where they hold youth group events and then where we're going to be staying this summer when we have our missions trip there. I can't even express how excited I am about this trip. This is going to be my first missions trip ever, and I can already tell that it's going to be AMAZING! We saw where we're going to stay and we even got to go up on the roof and look out over the city of Newark and you can even see NYC from there! Normally I wouldn't think of it being the nicest landscape to look at, but let me tell you there was something so beautiful about it.
We went back downstairs and ate with the kids and hung out with them a little more and then it was time for them to go home. It was so much fun getting to know them this this morning! We're going to be back there in two weeks and I'm already excited! I never thought I would enjoy something like this, although I don't know why because I love kids, and I love serving other people and I really like VBS weeks and well this is like VBS but all year round!
It's amazing how closed minded I am. I didn't think I was closed minded, but each day I'm finding out more and more that I really am. I'm also comfortable, too comfortable. I always said that I would never work in an inner city school, well after today I could see myself working there. All morning I couldn't stop thinking about my grandfather. It's been nearly 5 months since he died and he's always on my mind in some way. Today I couldn't stop thinking about him. I can only imagine that he was looking down on me this morning and smiling. He loved Newark, he loved teaching. The week before he died I went to go see him with my parents and I had taken papers with me to grade and I could tell how happy he was to see sharing the same passion for his craft, teaching. I'm tearing up just thinking about it! I miss him. It's strange because I forget sometimes that he's not with us anymore.
I'm so thankful today. I'm thankful for crumbling of the walls that I've put up around my heart. I'm thankful for the work that He's doing in my life, each and every day. For the passion that He's given me for teaching and for serving! I know that Jeremiah 29:11 is a verse that keeps arising in different areas of my life for a reason! I keep praying for the answers to those questions, and I am confident in the fact that His plans are to "prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future."
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