I REMEMBER WHEN I WAS A TEACHER- A GLASS OF IFE GRACE

I was in law school when I began to sense that I would have something to do with secondary school students after my graduation.

It was heavy on my heart. The more I prayed about it, the stronger the impression I had. By the time I was handed my NYSC posting letter to Benue state, It was settled in my heart that I would serve in a secondary school. How that was going to happen, I had no idea. I’d never heard of any lawyer posted to a secondary school before. 

Few days after I got into the orientation camp in Wannune, a lady informed me about a mission organization seeking out corps members to work in their school. I pleaded with the lady to get my name on their list but by the time we’d make further inquiries, the selection process had closed.

I kept thinking. ‘Lord, you said I’d be around secondary school students. How is this going to happen?’

My heart was already with the teens. I was already thinking of meeting them and yet the possibility of serving in a law firm was high. The thought of going to the court room every day dampened my heart because I knew exactly where God wanted me to be at that moment. 

The week before we left camp, a man I knew through my father called me aside and presented a blank sheet to me.

‘Where do you want to serve?’

For a minute, I was dumb founded. My mind ran in different directions. Was this man playing pranks on me? What do I write on this blank sheet? I was confused. Immediately. Immediately the name of that missionary school I had tried to apply to dropped on my heart. I took the pen from him and wrote it down. 

Until I held my posting letter and saw that my place of primary assignment (p.p.a) was that school, I still believed I’d be posted in a law firm. I was stunned beyond words.

When I got to the mission office to report, the first question I was asked was, ‘What course did you study?’

‘Law.’ I responded.

I could see the surprise on the face of one of the ministry’s leader. ‘Are you sure you want to be in a school? We can give you a place to sit in the mission’s office?’

I shook my head. I knew what God has said to me. My posting to that school was part of my life’s process and I wasn’t going to abort it.

I went to that school with a mission in mind. I asked God what his plan was for me was and He began to open my eyes to see some of the things he wanted me to do there.

Even though I was teaching the students English Language and Government. It was a boarding school and I remember how I preferred sleeping in the school hostel than sleeping on my bed. The voices of those teens was enough joy and satisfaction. I remember writing down the names of all the students in one of my classes and praying with my eyes falling on those names.

I remember the weekly meetings I had with three students and how it grew over time. I remember the prayer meetings, the private chats where deep secrets were revealed, the conversions of souls, the laughter, the surprise packages on my birthday, the personal dealings with God…

Why am I sharing this? There is so much work to be done in secondary schools. I believe that every believer who works in that sector should be mission minded.

It might not be your dream job, you might be there for a short time, you might be angry that teaching in a secondary school is not part of the plan you’ve written down for yourself. The truth remains, in that classroom are souls for whom Jesus died.

It’s so easy to sit with other teachers in the staff room and abuse that girl that’s sleeping with different boys in your class. It’s easy to talk down on a stubborn student who is acting like a thug. There might be demon possessed boys and girls right under your nose but you can’t see them because you are angry that your effort to get a job at a corporate firm is not pulling through. At the end of the day, what counts are the souls we impact for the kingdom. 

Secondary schools are mission fields. It starts with loving those students genuinely. This love is birthed in prayers for them. Let God place in you such intense love for your students.

In my few years of working with teens, I have learnt that reaching out to them starts from the heart. They will sense it if you only pretend to bring them close because you want to get something from them and not because you genuinely care about them.

As this love manifests through you, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to reach their hearts. I remember standing at the back in one of the schools I taught gazing intently at one troublesome student who had been summoned to the front of the assembly hall. I stood there with my eyes on him, praying. 

‘This one, Lord is yours.’ 

Before I left that school, he got saved.

I know it can be arduous being a teacher in a secondary school. I remember the time I had to teach English Language to all the Junior students in a thriving secondary school and at some point added some classes in the senior section. It was the craziest period ever. So much assignments to mark, lesson plan and notes to prepare…But still, I believe the wisdom of God is available for kingdom-minded teachers.

Students shouldn’t just remember you as the teacher who is great at using the whips. You shouldn’t be remembered as a woman who only knows how to shout at the top of your voice.

If you trust the Lord’s plan for your life, see that school environment as a portion of your kingdom assignment.

As you pray in the Spirit for those students, an atmosphere of light will open up and you’ll be led specifically to the students the Holy Spirit want you to reach.

In that school, the manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit will flow, the demonstrations of the power of God will be evident and those teenagers will be delivered from the power of darkness and translated to the kingdom of Christ.

The consciousness of soul winning must always be in our hearts. The Spirit of the Lord is upon every teacher who is a believer, to deliver teens from oppression, to snatch them from the devil, to disciple students for kingdom work. The harvest is ripe.

And to teachers who are believers and acting like unbelievers, is it not time to repent?

There is a clarion call. Will you answer this call?

Read: I must get to the top- A glass of Ife Grace

When I was an unemployed graduate