“I don’t like children!!!” I have to admit that I have lived with that idea for a long time. I thought this even though I had the opportunity to teach children before. But only a couple of weeks ago, something changed in me. It has been something radical—something that I would have never imagined in my life. And do you know what it is? The pure grace and love that God has poured in my life is something inexplicable, and something that I thought impossible has become possible. God has put a love, burden, and desire in my heart to not only teach children character qualities, but to also transmit the love of God and reflect Christ.
“I’m from Mexico.” It is one of the phrases that I have been using the most. I really love each one of the children that I teach, but I have to admit that I have a special connection with the Hispanic children. Perhaps it is because they speak my language (sarcasm). It makes me so happy to be able to help them, and most of all it is an answered prayer. I speak Spanish more easily than English, so since I arrived I started to pray for Hispanic children.
My first day of school was great, but in the last class something that I didn’t expect happened. We went into our last classroom, the teacher spoke in English, and then she said the same thing but in Spanish. “This is my chance,” I thought, so I asked the teacher why she was doing that. She told me that four of the students did not speak English. That was some of the happiest news of my life. I translated the class for them! I could never forget their faces of gratitude; that was a gift from God. At the end of the class, one of the Hispanic girls hugged me four times. I left that classroom with a feeling that I had never experienced before: an inexplicable happiness. It was like a dream, and I could not stop smiling. I have had the opportunity to translate in others schools, and I’m very excited every time. But what I love the most is to see their faces of gratitude, and I see that they really feel special and loved. Many of them struggle with learning to speak English, and I understand them because I felt exactly the same way when I was their age. Some classmates laugh at them because they just speak Spanish, but when you speak to them in their language, their faces change radically. It is a pleasure to help them, and it is refreshing for them and for me to talk in Spanish.
I thank God for the privilege that He has given to me to serve Him through the children. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be able to demonstrate to them that love that only comes from God. I just pray that He will give me a real interest for each one, and that they can feel it.
~By Becky
Becky is attending her first session at In The Gap’s Leadership Academy.
Learn more at: www.InTheGap.org/LeadershipAcademy