Teachers and Parents Doing the Work God Called Them to Do
Teachers of missionary children (MKs) fill a vital role in taking the Word of God to the four corners of the earth. Many MKs attend a school where Teachers conduct classes and learning activities; where they counsel, take students on field trips, coach sports, conduct band, and hold Bible classes; and where they meet with parents and work with other teachers. Some teachers teach advanced placement courses to complement the regular curriculum. Teachers participate in professional development activities to improve their teaching. All of this results in a rich experience for MKs. MK schools are indeed busy places with many good things taking place.
Parents who send their children to MK schools perform all sorts of important functions for the Lord in many places in the world. These functions include work in the business office, maintenance of plumbing and electricity, and feeding children in boarding schools. There are doctors, nurses, and dentists, computer people, pilots, auto mechanics, Bible translators, literacy workers, and church planters. Some have college degrees and some have graduate degrees. They are all interested in their children's education and have high expectations of schools and teachers.
Sometimes parents of children work in areas removed from where the school is located and younger children are home schooled. Parents are assisted at times with the help of an itinerant teacher. When the children become old enough they enroll in an MK boarding school and have surrogate dormitory parents.
In other places parents and children cycle in and out of the compound where the school is located. When the family is on the compound the children attend regular school. When they are away from the compound and school they take with them lessons prepared by their teacher.
This combination of parents, children, and teachers contributes to the Great Commission of Christ in that both parents and teachers answered the call by God. The parents of children go about with their own calling by the Lord, secure in the knowledge that the educational needs of their children are being met.
Less Than Ideal
Many missionaries have children who need to be educated and in many cases the process works as it should. We know, however, that at any given time there are simply not enough teachers to teach all the children of all the missionaries in all the world. Some schools begin the school year without an adequate number of teachers and in other schools some teachers leave during the school year. When there are not enough teachers parents of the children are faced with a dilemma: They want to serve the Lord as directed by him and at the same time they need to find an alternative solution for the education of their children. A variety of compromises results, none of them good.
Over and over again missionary parents in Mexico, Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, and Kenya told me about the value of and need for teachers for their children and the consequences of not having enough teachers.
Some relayed to me their need to home school their children even when there was an MK school in the area, others told me about enrolling their children in a national or international school that was expensive, others told me about their assuming the role of a teacher at an MK school since there was not a teacher for a particular grade level or content area (leaving their own work for the Lord undone), and still others talked about how close they came to leaving the field since there was not a teacher for their children.
Over and over again MK teachers expressed their frustrations for not having enough teachers in their school and the need for them to teach multiple grades or teach in a content area for which they were not prepared. They sympathized with parents and did all they could to educate their children.
Over and over again MK school administrators told me about the multiple ways they used to recruit an adequate number of teachers for each grade level and all content areas, sometimes successful and sometimes not. They told me about the difficulty in filling vacancies during the school year.
The solution seems simple enough yet difficult to fulfill: Recruit more qualified teachers from retired, practicing and former teachers and from recent college graduates. However, in reality it is not that simple. Prospective teachers cite several reasons they cannot go to the mission field: excessive credit card debt, college loans to repay, the recession we are in, family ties, grandchildren to spoil, or a feeling that, "I could never do something like that."
Teachers In Service Partners With Others in Recruitment of Teachers
Teachers In Service cannot address all the reasons prospective teachers cannot go to the mission field. However, we have set into motion two initiatives to assist mission organizations in recruitment of teachers. First, on recent trips to MK schools I recorded with a camcorder discussions with parents, MK teachers, and administrators about the value of and need for MK teachers and when there is an inadequate number of teachers in a school the impact on taking the Word of God to the four corners of the earth. These discussions substantiate my conclusion that there are not enough teachers. Video clips taken from these discussions are available for viewing by individuals like yourself and others in anticipation that you will realize that your devotion to Christ and the knowledge and skills you possess are valued and needed for teaching children of missionaries.
Second, many new teachers right out of college cannot go to the mission field because of excessive college loans to repay. Many mission agencies will not accept them. Project EdSend was conceived to locate third party funding which would assume monthly college education loan payments for new teachers, thus permitting those who are otherwise deemed acceptable by mission organizations to go to the mission field. Funding is not presently available but we believe that God in his own time will supply it.
TIS is seeking to individuals who would be willing to pursue funding for and manage Project EdSend. Individuals interested in discussing this possibility please contact us.
Challenge/Invitation
The need for MK teachers has never been greater and you can be part of the solution to the teacher shortage problem expressed by missionaries. Are you a teacher and are you seeking God's will for your life? Do you believe God has called and prepared you to teach children of missionaries? Are you genuinely interested in serving the Lord and are you willing to pray about and to work towards overcoming obstacles? Are you willing to match your personal ministry with the ministry of other missionaries already on the field and who need teachers for their children? What could be more exciting and fulfilling than to be at the front line of support for taking the Word of God to every nation, tribe, people, and language?
If you are serious about teaching MKs or if you merely want to investigate possibilities or if you simply want to learn more, please go to Where Do I Begin?
