Reflection on the first day teaching

5-17-10

At times I really think that I enjoy God’s greatness nearly as much upon eating a delicious and longed-for meal as I do upon singing a great hymn... ;) and tonight was such a night. It was a chilly, cloudy, and showery day; and we got lost a bit on the way home, and walked a bit longer in the cold as dusk came. But we were safe, and Eva fed us some incredible soup, some meat with gravy, and a smoothie of kiwi and strawberry for desert. Yum!

Anyway. Today was a long day (at least it feels so now, after walking home) & I had my first lesson, finally! It went well, I think. I was worried a little during lesson planning that I would not fill the time well, but it filled perfectly. I happened before upon the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for whom God did the miraculous for His name’s sake. I was convinced God would glorify his name even through me—“I have glorified it and will glorify it again!” It is for his glory and kingdom, these classes, it is his own glory to be shown in my teaching. I felt mostly calm and confident, & it came along mostly naturally. Teaching is a stretch for me, but stretching is good.

My class is 6-7 women, mostly 30-40 years old, and one 16-year-old. They were rather willing to talk, which is nice. After class, when I had breathed a sigh of having conquered the first lesson and ended on time (my biggest prayer was that they trust my competence, & aside from their laughter when I said I was only 20 years old, I think they did), Stef smiled at me and we started down the marble stairs… who would meet us near the bottom but my student Majlinda (“Mylinda”). She spoke to us and asked to come to the English church service we have here on Sundays, in order to get more English exposure… of course, we gladly agreed! Also she asked us to coffee, and so we went, full of joy and adrenaline.

She tells us she is an accountant, and wishes to learn English to communicate better with her boss, who is not Albanian. It obviously distresses her, she says that she gets nervous and freezes up and is afraid to lose her job—I hope we can meet this need. She says she is a Muslim, but she most often goes to an orthodox church with her husband.