WHEN I THINK OF TEACHERS...

I recently passed along a story about an insurance salesman who was doing God's work of ministry. It's time to comment on some other professions...like teachers, for instance.

When I think of teachers doing ministry, I remember my second-grade teacher, Lurie Rindahl, who was also a great-aunt through marriage. I was sick over half of my first year in school with various respiratory ailments and would have repeated first grade the next year. However, my father died that summer, and we moved to stay with my aunt Myrtle. Lurie, her sister-in-law, lived just a block away. She tutored me through the summer and got me to pass my first-grade tests, so that I could move on to join her class in the fall. That wasn't all, however. She and her husband provided a home-away-from-home where I could go to visit and play Yahtzee and other such games. They were childless, but they were like grandparents to me.

When I think of teachers as ministers, I think of a couple of math teachers, Mrs. Walker and Mr. Haugen. I would stay after school and talk (about what I don't remember), and they would oblige by listening. I think of Mr. Gander, the shop teacher, who taught me things my father probably would have taught me had he lived. I think of Mrs. Matthey, in sixth grade, who showed her special TLC to those who misbehaved in class (luckily, I wasn't among them), and who nearly always bought what I happened to be selling door to door. And I think of Mr. Boe, the principal--he of the thick Norwegian accent--who provided me with a job as student janitor and with it some needed male comraderie during my adolescent years.

Our school now has a program called "Teachers as Advisors," where teachers take time periodically to meet with students about their learning goals and other more personal matters. But another role has always been there, I believe. It's not a program; it's a calling. It's called teachers as ministers.

This one's for you, Cheryl. I hope that other teachers might see this, too.

Blessings,
John