Local International Missions... Is That Even Possible?

Once upon a time, I got a job as a Kindergarten teacher and intended to post here frequently about my adventures and challenges. However, as you can see, I last posted on August 4, 2010, shortly after I accepted the position. This job is so crazy... in a crazy awesome kind of a way. The only problem is that I have spent so much time planning and preparing and being flat out exhausted that I pretty much forgot this whole blogging thing even existed.



For now, I will do my best to give you a short and sweet reflection of my year, with more details/funny stories to come later...

Let's review since it has been awhile: I said I would NEVER teach Kindergarten. Never say never...

Now, here I am having just said goodbye to my 20 Kindergarten kiddos yesterday after a busy year of teaching them both academics and general life skills. My class consisted of many different socioeconomic backgrounds- from extremely rich to dirt poor, different races- White, Black, and Hispanic, and different home lives- overprotective parents, divorced parents, parents who could care less, and the list goes on! What an exhilarating and eye-opening year it has been! I have discovered many things this year.

First, Kindergarten is not what it used to be... epsecially in Lee County. I have discovered that one of the reasons I never wanted to teach K is because I saw it as a little bit of alphabet, a little bit of counting, and a lot of play. I think this is what many people think, but this preconceived notion is sooo wrong! Yes, this is what it used to be to a certain extent, but not anymore!

As I look back on the year, I think about my kids who were the lowest of the low academically at the start. And I think about how several of them really didn't even speak much English. And then I think about how these same kids just finished up our year reading 100+ sight words, writing stories of 4 or more sentences, and adding and subtracting and counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's like it's nobody's business. The only word that comes to my mind for this progress is WOW. This is HUGE. God just allowed me to be a part of a child's life by helping them to love learning, teaching them to always try their best, and paving the way for success in their future years of education. Yes, we did our fair share of playing, and there was plenty of fun to be had, but it wasn't the purposeless kind of fun I envisioned when I thought of Kindergarten before September 2010. SO maybe, just maybe, Kindergarten is where I belong??? I don't know about that just yet, but I would be perfectly fine to stay there if that is what God has in store for me!

Boy, did I ever think I had pretty much my whole life, figured out for myself. Go to college, go to FLI, be a Journeyman for two years, teach 3 years in NC to pay back my scholarship, and then move to a far away land to be an international missionary. .......Wrong.

To be honest, I was a little put out when the IMB wouldn't even let me past Stage 1 of the J-Man application process because my BMI was too high. Really J-Man? Really? You have never even laid eyes on me before...

Well, God had something bigger for me. He wanted me to discover that the foreign mission field is not just across the ocean or the border. It is actually right around us, in inner city America, in rural America, and most of all, in our public school classrooms where all the different cultures of America come together for a large portion of a child's day. The public school classroom IS the foreign mission field, and God has shown me that is where He intended me to be this year... In Lee County, at Deep River, in Kindergarten classroom 209... and at the risk of sounding conceited (although not intending to), no one else could have done the job in room 209 quite like I did. After all, if the job were intended for someone else, I hopefully would not have been there.

More than that, I truly and wholeheartedly believe that God placed me in that classroom for 24 unique children with 24 different sets of unique and special needs. Some were more needy than others, but all were in need of someone to share the love of our Abba with them through action at all times, and in word, when possible.

So, although I may not have crossed any oceans or continental borders this school year, I did complete my first year as an international missionary right here in our own backyard... And I knew I was right where God intended me to be every single step of the way. There's not a better feeling in the world!

Looking forward to sharing more details with you in future posts... maybe I won't abandon the blogging world this time, like I have done for the past 8 months! :)