End of an Era

 After 3 years of teaching ESL… I wrapped up… what is seemingly the last class I will ever teach.  At least the last class I’ll teach as a full time ESL teacher at SJCAC.  The traffic gets worse and worse.  And now that the kids aren’t serving in Tutoring… it makes it hard for me to go solo.  Add on the fact that Joyce has given me an unwritten quota of what I can do with my “spare” time… the time has come to invest in New Vine and no longer SJ. 

 I’ve always felt I had a knack for teaching.  With so many examples and role models in my life… I’ve tried to take the best from all the best… and then roll it together and make it my own.  I’ve had my own struggles.  I’ve tried things that made out like a lead balloon and fallen completely flat and failed.  But for every fail… I probably had over 10-20 wins.  Like how the Tuesday attendance were noticeably hire than the Thursday class.  Or how students flat out tell me they come because of me.  Or when one of the students I demoted tried to beg to stay… because in her broken English and my broken Spanish… she knew the difference in my teaching style. There will always be a special place in my heart for helping new immigrants.  How many angels have helped my family in the past… I long to be able to pay it forward and help someone else.  And perhaps… in some weird way… they too will end up helping someone else. 

 These past three years have been humbling, challenging, and rewarding.  I was able to serve together with N and SW… for a short time.  A lot of times, those 45 minute drives ended up being naps for them.  I can’t express the joy I have when I share a different bible verse each week… and see the students’ face light up when they feel the encouragement of God’s words.  I’ve been graced by the presence and efforts of many of the pillars of SJCAC.  Seeing how many of them have served in ESL for years if not decades… and they continue to bring it, week after week, year after year.  I am saddened to see some of our students come and go… some disappear because of jobs. But more recently, they disappear for other reasons. 

 I end ESL with the same bible verse that was come as an anthem for my time in this ministry… where I set my alarm to go off at 10:02PM every day… to pray the words of Luke 10:2.  “The harvest is plenty, but workers are few.”  How I long that there’ll be a surge and abundance of young adult teachers that will give up a weeknight to be part of this ministry… to be part of God’s vision.