The First Day of In-Service
There was a lot to think about last night that kept me from
sleeping as well as normal. Today was
the first day of in-service and I was worried about what would be happening at
school. I also ordered a taxi yesterday
to pick me up on a regular basis, Monday through Friday. Did I do it right? Or would I have to look
for a taxi at 7:00 in the morning? And
like most first days of school, I worried if I would get up when my alarm went
off or roll back into bed.
As normal, on days like this, I woke up often: 1:00, 2:40,
4:05, 4:50, 5:05, 5:15 – go ahead and get up!
I showered, shaved, and made breakfast, busying myself with the morning
and worrying about the day. So time to
stop. I needed to read my bible and find
my rest in God’s Word. Lately He has
been speaking to me a lot about that, stopping and digging deeper into His
Word. My life needs centering. That is a daily thing. We never can truly find that place until we
are with God. The worrying proved to be
futile.
My taxi is not on time – he’s early! He also told me he would be my driver every
day, so my plan to get a regular taxi driver worked. My Spanish was good enough for them to
understand my request. Now I don’t have
to worry about how I will get to school every day.
I’m not going to talk about setting up my classroom or
working on lesson plans and things like that at the moment. That can wait. Today I want to share with you the difference
working in a Christian school just by describing the first day of in-service.
The director, Jeff, opened us in prayer and that was
followed by worship led by the elementary music teacher. I felt the whole
time of worship was helping us center on our calling to make Jesus known in the
lives of our students. We sang three or
four songs, but two stood out to me. One
was “We Believe.” The song tells what we
believe as Christians. For me it was a
reminder that this is what we are teaching these kids. The other was “Holy Spirit,” which is
inviting the Holy Spirit to be in our place.
Imagine being at a school in-service and being reminded that what we are
doing is for the souls of the children we are teaching and inviting the Holy
Spirit to be with us and guide us!
Then Emily, the high school principal, led us in a devotion
that was also introducing us to a simple student evaluation we can do in our
classes. It is called “think, pair, and
share.” I know many teachers do this and
might even call it this. It began with
us individually reading Colossians 1 and thinking about what it says about who
we are, what is our identity, and what it our purpose. Then with a partner or two, we discussed our
ideas. Lastly we shared those ideas to
the entire group. You teacher friends
know you have done this often.
In Colossians 1, three things stood out to me. First, God has reconciled us to Himself. It is nothing we have done or deserve; it is
all His doing. Second, it talks about us
bearing fruit. As Debbie and I talked
about that, we saw that it doesn’t always mean bringing others to salvation; it
can mean personal growth. And third, God
has qualified us. Often I feel I am not
good enough to do what I am doing or I think I might not have really heard God
speak. But God has said He has qualified
me. It is not what I have done, but what
He has done.
We also had some time we called a prayer walk. We weren’t given a specific time frame or
requirements to accomplish. Instead we
were told to take time to pray in our classes or across the campus (thus the “walk”
around campus). Teaching is an awesome
responsibility. We might be
well-equipped to do what we are doing, I can think of a dozen teacher friends
as I write this, but we can go much further with God’s guidance.
How amazing to come into an in-service and make God the
center of what we are doing!
I’ll share more about the mundane preparation later. I just wanted you to know this.
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