Not everyone enters college with knowing exactly what God wants them to do. At least that was my case in 1999 when I came to the University of Michigan as a freshman. Though I was lost in life direction, God found me after a month into school by transforming me from my nominal Christian identity to a born-again Christian with a clear purpose and hope to live for His glory. As I got more serious about my relationship with Christ, I started praying about God’s calling in my life. During this time, God had also been burdening my heart for missions. So I lifted a bold prayer to God to show me a vision that would be connected to missions and influencing people. That’s how God led me to the road of education and I ended up majoring in elementary education.
As I look back, the road God has taken me through education has been quiet unexpected. After I graduated in 2003, I pursued after the normal teaching job that everyone else desired. I wanted to have my own classroom in a nice public school district and get a descent salary. When I was job searching, I realized that there were so many different avenues in education. I started off my first job in a low income district where the majority of the kids were from single-parent home and had difficult backgrounds. A month into my first teaching experience, I had to quit because I couldn’t handle the class. I struggled a lot with feeling like a failure and even doubted my calling in the education field. For the rest of the year, I ended up working as a teacher-assistant at UM child development center. It was a very humbling year as I just spent time with young international children and felt like my teaching certificate was useless. However, God opened this door to show me His passion for the international community and to open my eyes to the importance of early childhood education.
The following year, I stumbled upon a private Montessori school in the area through a connection and ended up getting a job. The timing was impeccable as the director of the school was in town for only 2 days in between her missions trips. She suddenly lost a teacher and was also looking for a replacement and when I showed up at her door with a resume, she also took it as God’s will and hired me on the spot. I had no idea what Montessori was about and the first two years were all about just assisting my principal and learning about this new method of education. During my time at the Montessori school, I learned that this method is very unique and effective to meet the needs of children who are starting their learning career in their different developmental stages. I also learned that Montessori is an internationally known method and is being used all over the world. Convicted of the effectiveness of this method of education, I decided to get Montessori certification.
After my first year, my director decided that it was time for her to step down from leading the school and take on her passion to lead a non-profit missions project that she did on the side. To my surprise, she offered me to lead the school. This is how I know that God is truly in control and that He is the author of all stories. Only after 5 years into teaching experience, God opened up an opportunity for me to learn how to run a school as a director!
Currently, I’m in my first year of leading the school. It has not been easy as I’ve been encountering many different administration issues along with teaching full time. However, I really have to admit that it has been the most challenging and exciting year of my teaching career. I’ve also have been learning that being a teacher is not only about teaching the curriculum given to you, but being an influence who will set a tone for the rest of the child’s learning life. It really is a huge commitment and a responsibility.
I know this is just the beginning of what God is preparing for the future. It has been my passion and dream to be used by God in the field of education to do missions ever since the first year when I received the calling to go into education. My dream is to open up schools in the nations where there are no proper schools for children who so deserve to learn as children do here in the United States. Whenever I see, read, hear about children who do not have schools to go to or even adults who are illiterate because they never received proper education growing up, it breaks my heart. I firmly believe that education can be a powerful tool in order to transform the family, the community, and the nation.
My dream is not only opening schools on my own, but it is to go with a team of people and work through a local church. As children and families are reached through schools, they can get connected to local churches and, God willing, become disciples of Christ who will then transform their community. My heart is not only for the locals who can not afford great schools, but is also for children of missionaries and pastors in the nations who deserve the best education but are limited in resources due to their calling.
My dream is also not only opening one school and spending the rest of my life there. Even though I don’t know how it can be penned out, but I would love to go from place to place, nation to nation and help set up schools, train local teachers and build sustainable, self-running schools. Just like planting churches all over the world, I think it would be so wonderful to plant schools alongside the churches to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth!
I’m still in the very beginning of this journey, but I am so thankful and excited to see how God can use someone so small like me to be a part of His great redemptive plan for the world! I also pray that God will raise up more teachers, administrators and those who are passionate about education to reach the nations.