Los Ninos

So everyday for the past few weeks I have found myself teaching in the classroom for either middle school, high school or continuation school students. Of course, I am substitute teaching, so there is a very different mindset from the students when they walk into class and don’t see their regular teacher around. I remember the feeling and the thoughts when I would turn the corner, look into class and see a sub standing their looking a like seal about to be thrown into a shark tank. We would eat them alive. Now I am the seal and it is a unique experience.

Janny and I are both doing this as more or less an experiment. We are both considering going back to get a teaching credential/master degree, but thought this would give us a good picture of what teaching might be like. I don’t think it’s that great a sample because of the seal/shark dynamic that exists, but it has allowed me to wrestle with the stories of these students. As I have mentioned in detail in previous posts, Jan and I are on a mission to use all of our energy towards BEING the church and avoiding the temptation to use our energy to “put on” church once or twice a week as we have often felt obligated to do. With that mentality, I can’t help but think of the stories that lie behind everyone one of these insecure, hyper active and attention seeking teenagers. This is new territory for me and it puts me out of my comfort zone, which is leading/forcing me to some new insights that I had never wrestled with before.

Between earning the students attention, sending some to the participle’s office, dodging paper airplanes and sometimes wanting to run out of the room screaming, I am trying to keep in mind their stories. As I have some conversation with them, I am blown away by what they have endured and are currently enduring. Majority with broken homes, many with learning disabilities that they are too fearful to acknowledge, constant verbal abuse and all with a hopeless yearning for popularity and acceptance. Although I often receive my 6am phone call assignment with a poor attitude, I know I am in a place to live out Jesus and be the Church in more ways that I often think I am capable. I’m on a mission, but it is a lot harder and not near as pretty as I had originally imagined.