I Was Made To Teach

Ministry in Ternopil hasn't been easy. It took me years to find my niche back in Colorado, and now, I'm in a foreign place, with foreign customs, and people speaking foreign languages, and for the last four months, I've felt like my niche was no where to be found.

Coming to Ukraine, I knew that the Lord wanted us to work with orphans and do orphanage ministry. But, for whatever reason, the Lord just hasn't opened any doors for us with that ministry. Truthfully, I have no idea why the timing isn't right for us to work with an orphanage, but it just isn't. And, I have finally come to a point at which I can trust God enough to know that He DID, in fact, call me to orphanage ministry, but right now, He's asking me to wait on Him.

So, my niche has been lost to me. I'm not needed for worship, I'm not needed for women's ministry, I can't get into any orphanages, I'm not needed to help plan and organize events... Really, I've had no idea what to do for the last four months.

It's been really difficult for many reasons, but the biggest reason is probably because Byron has a better idea of He's supposed to be doing than I have had. Byron can study for the Bible study he teaches, Byron can work on his discipleship program, given to him by our pastor back home. Byron can be part of the men's leadership meetings. But me? For the last four months, I've really been at a loss.

At first, because of all of this, I really struggled with my identity and the issue of personal value. Praise God, I've been able to move past that, but that still didn't help me to know what I'm supposed to do. And waiting on the Lord for something to do is really difficult for me. I want to do it now. I want to be knee high in ministry, everyday. But for the last four months, the Lord has continually told me to simply wait.

Until last week :)

Back home, I was a teacher, and I loved teaching. But when we moved to Ukraine, I resigned to giving that up, understanding that there would be very few opportunities to teach in Ukraine, especially since I was a biology teacher. But recently, the Lord told me that I didn't have to wait anymore, but I did have to trust Him in a new way.

I'm good at science. I get it. It's easy for me and I love to explain it. But English? I've never really been a language teacher, and it's never been super easy for me to explain things like why we should say this over that. So, when I was approached to help with English clubs, I found myself nervous, and almost said no.

But the Lord kept nudging me, and I finally got past myself and said yes. Not even two days later, I was approached about another English club. But with this English club, I wouldn't just be helping, I would also be writing the literature for the classwork. Then, the next day, someone asked me to personally tutor them in English. Two days later, another person asked me to tutor them in English. And the icing on the cake? The Lord gave me my deepest desire, and someone from back home asked me if I could tutor them in biology, which is my biggest teaching passion.

It was all an explosion of ministry! All at once, I went from feeling like I had nothing to do, to having to actually put my schedule on my phone to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. And the coolest thing about all of this? I'm not just teaching again, I'm teaching about the Lord. In both English clubs, and with both of my English students, we practice reading comprehension by reading the Bible, and we practice conversational English by discussing what we read in the Bible.

I keep finding myself thinking of 2 Timothy 3:16, which reads, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (NKJV).

I don't know if this verse was literally meaning that the Bible could be used for English club material, but that's the way I'm using it, and it's amazing to see how God is moving through His Word. And after I finish teaching, I not only get the usual, excited teacher high, but I'm also getting the "Wow, the Holy Spirit is really moving" feeling, which is the most amazing feeling in the world.

Waiting on the Lord was so hard for me, but now that my time to wait is over, I'm so thankful for what God is doing, and I'm so blessed to be a small part of it. And I think, what I've learned through all of this is that, on the mission field and off, God made me to be a teacher.