The Young Believers

The above children are the five young believers in the mission school.  

     Erica is a second generation student. Her father went to the school. Her father became a believer during his time in the school, and is currently a treasurer in our church, and is working as a propane deliverer and is the volunteer fire chief in the community. Her mother came to the mission to volunteer there. They married and both served together at the mission for several years during which Erica was born. Erica was baptized last summer and is growing stronger in her Christian faith. 

     Ashanti has been a Christian for just under a year. She was baptized this summer. She comes to from a broken home. Her parents live in the same house but aren't married and both drink extensively. They have four children together of whom Ashanti is the oldest. At 11 years old she has the responsibility of caring for her younger siblings. Her mother has begun coming to church regularly and hopefully her daughter will show the light of Jesus to her. Ashanti has shown a great determination to stick with her faith. She has shown great faith already.

     Shawna is a recent addition to the Torreon community. Her family moved down here from Iowa just this summer. Shortly after relocating she expressed a desire to be saved, and was baptized along with the other three this summer. Her father was a staff member several years ago. After volunteering here he went back to Iowa. He married and had three children. After the third was born his wife was diagnosed with cancer. Several months later Shawna's mother died. Later Shawna's father remarried and recently has added two more children to their family. Shawna is growing in her Christian faith and is maturing into a godly woman.

     Kenneth became a Christian at the same time as Ashanti and was baptized along with her. He is also a second generation student. His father went to the mission when he was young. His parents are not believers and he can be found attending church alone. He has three younger siblings and is frequently caring for them. I am personally his Christian mentor. I have been given the responsibility of guiding him in his faith. I have been working with him and have seen him grow. He has the potential to be a great light in one of the darkest areas of the community.

     Elijah became a Christian along with Kenneth and Ashanti and was baptized with the others. He is adopted. He lives with his adopted mother. His sister is a current staff member. He is a very outgoing person and one of the most popular boys in the school. He will need a lot of guidance and mentoring in his Christian faith. However, he has shown get promise in becoming a great pillar of the community.

     One Sunday a staff member approached me and asked if I would like to help with a discipleship class for these students. It would be a class where they would be strengthened, encouraged, and built up. They would be able to learn, ask questions, and laugh. We have the class once a month and have had two so far. I would like the class to be a time of growth for the students. They need help and the staff and I are giving them that.
     Erica. Ashanti. Shawna. Kenneth. Elijah. They are the beaming lights of the school. They are growing into godly men and women, and hopefully will continue on the path they are walking.

The Reward of Helping

     The above collage consist of the pictures the staff graciously took of me while I practiced reading with the children. Working with the children gives me the opportunity to watch them improve their skills. Seeing them gain proficiency in academics is truly rewarding. These children will be adults in just a few years and will need the skills they learn in the mission school. They will be parents and leaders.  Perhaps they will become doctors or politicians. Wherever God places them they will need the abilities they mastered at the mission school. It is a privilege to help them along their journey.

     I also tutored in math, science, english, spelling, writing, and history. The mission school has a rewards system that was in progress the two weeks I was there. The students have four to six workbooks. Each of which needs to be completed within three weeks. The third week the rewards of finishing begin to be reaped. On Monday if a child has finished the necessary requirements a ribbon is place over their desk. The ribbon shows who is finished and who still needs to work. Starting on Wednesday the children without ribbons aren't allowed to go to break or participate in extracurricular activities. On Friday the children with ribbons are given a special dessert for lunch. Part of the tutoring task involved helping the students without ribbons achieve the goal. It was a pleasure to watch the children receive their ribbons. Sarah (a supervisor in the school, of whom I will discuss later) mentioned to me that there were more ribbons in the school that week than she had seen in a long time. I had the privilege to help several students achieve that goal. Many of the students at the mission are academically challenged or are distracted incredibly easily. They simply need an extra push to be able to achieve their goals. Often the mission staff are incredibly busy and can't set aside the time needed to give those students that extra push. It does take work, but the work was worth it. I felt fulfilled during my time there. It was nice to eat with the children on Friday and watch them eat their treat. (This time it was apple pie with vanilla ice-cream.) 

 

Balance of Teacher and Friend

     After school on Wednesdays at the mission the staff are encouraged to keep groups of children for games and supper. These are the boys I kept. Interacting with them brought the issue that all teachers eventually deal with. This issue is a topic that in recent years has become one of the most discussed issues in the educational circles. 

     Some contend that many students have a hard enough time at home. They don't need more strict models in their lives. They claim that teachers should be buddies with their students, go easy on them and try to make their school life as fun and loving as possible.

Others assert that in the present times children are not getting the authority they need to thrive. They admit that children should be loved and not abused. Yet they contend

                                            that if authority figures aren't commanding, then children will see no need to obey them                                                                                           and in the end possess little if any respect for authority. Teachers should not be friends

                                            with their students. They should be mentors and leaders.

                                                   My time at the mission helped me to formulate my opinion about the issue. First

                                            of all I strongly feel that the family is falling apart. Children are not receiving the

                                            authority they need to thrive. A child craves rules. Though they often rebel against the                          

                                           rules, children that live in a structured environment are much more successful 

                                           than those that don't. Because children are not receiving the control they need at

                                           home teachers must help to counteract that. They must be leaders and trainers first

                                           and for most. 

     On the other hand the teachers job is to prepare the students for life. One way to do this is to participate in nonacademic areas.  To do this a teacher must know the students on a personal level. There is a balance that every successful teacher must find. A balance between teacher and friend. I was not friends with the students during school, however after school I could interact with them. I could get down on their level and get to know them better. Not as students, but a people in their own right. Tracy is always happy. Even when complaining, he has a smile on his face. Daylon is very smart and witty. He excels in school and has a great sense of humor. Dakota is the cool dude. He is quite athletic, and always trying to impress his friends. Abram is the leader of the pack. He likes to be different, and isn't afraid to state his opinion.

Balance of Teacher and Friend Part 2

     The River of Lights is an event in the Albuquerque area that is fun to go to every December. A bio park sets up Christmas lights and people can stroll through them. Jason and Sheena were taking the high school students and asked if I would like to come. While I was there my mind wandered towards the problem I was thinking of earlier. The balance of teacher and friend. Walking with the teens I thought about how to be friendly while maintaining the leader atmosphere. Being friendly and being a friend are two very different things.

      A teacher needs to be friendly. If he is not, the classroom will be much more restricting and the student won't be able to learn at their fullest capacity. By doing simple acts such as learning the students' names, history, and aptitudes the teacher will be able to create an environment in which students can be taught affectively. It is important to know the students. All students are different and one lesson won't be successful for all of them. It is also important to know what the students are adept at doing. For example, if a student is talented at speaking the teacher should use that for the best of the student. Give the student extra work that involves speaking and maybe a little less work on writing if that is the students weakness. A teacher would be able to learn all of these useful tidbits simply by being friendly with the students

    Although being friendly is important it should not be taken to the extreme. If a teacher is excessively friendly the classroom will look more like a party. There will be little order and no actual learning. Order is necessary. A friend isn't able to create learning. Many toddlers play school. If one were to watch several children playing school, it would quickly become evident that there is little, if any, learning and no order. A friend rarely teaches a friend. A classroom would be the same way. If the students think of the teacher as only a friend there no need to listen or obey that teacher. Friends are on the same level. If a student sees himself on the same level as the teacher, the authority flies out the door. A friend has no authority.
   
     Teachers need to be friendly. They do not need to be friends. A teacher needs to see the students as valuable members of society. A student needs to see authority in the teacher. If there is an extreme in either area the classroom won't function correctly.