Very early in the morning, when it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house

and went to a solitary place, where He prayed. (Mark 1:35)

The Word at Work (Part II)
Eleven years ago when she began teaching freshman English at a large challenging
inner city school, Barbara Hollingsworth was not a master teacher but she knew Jesus, the real
Master Teacher. Her annual beach getaways became crucial times and places where God
revealed His word and directions for her life, her hope and future in her career as well as in her
personal relationships with Him, her husband and her daughters.
The visit to the Galvez Hotel, while starting her eleventh year in education, was a
crossroad that changed Barbara Hollingsworths career and life forever just as that day on the
beach had been her junior year at college. (See devotional The Word at Work Part I.)
Barbara was a good academic teacher after eleven years of teaching but not a great teacher. She was a great person and a
great follower of Jesus. Her work sponsoring the Christian club was miraculously changing young peoples lives. The academic
changes in her classroom, however, were not miraculous. Many students came into her class with elementary skill levels and a dislike
for reading and hatred for writing. Their grammar skills were especially bad. For many students, English was their second language.
The materials and strategies the district had provided her over the last ten years were varied and changed constantly even
before the effectiveness of the last strategy had been assessed. Program after program was thrown into the classrooms at the district
level but never reached the root of the problem, which was the young adults motivation levels - their lack of love for either reading or
writing. These youth were a part of the movie and entertainment electronic age and texting. Applying all the program and curricular
surface Band-Aids to these gaping bleeding academic English skills wounds were not healing the patients. Barbara knew many of her
students struggled when they got to college, some even dropping out because of the many remedial courses they had to take before
taking credit classes and it broke her heart. She felt like the good Samaritan with bleeding neighbors with no bandages or oil to help.
As Barbara strolled along the beach on the Saturday morning of her retreat she listened to wave after wave gently rolling up
calmly upon the beach. Barbara always felt the sound of the waves were like the heartbeat of God. As she walked in the shallow cold
morning surf and as the orange sun was attempting to peek at her over the horizon, she heard that small whisper of the voice of God
beginning to speak within her. She immediately stopped walking, pulled out her journal, sat in the sand just out of the reach of the
waves, and began writing down what He was speaking to her.
Listen to me my beloved. When you listen to the students you are listening to me for they are the least of them. Hear what
they hear and translate it for them into written words. Teach them to listen to me by listening to one another and my wisdom. Teach
them to listen to my voice in nature. If you and your students learn to wait upon and to listen to me and one another, you shall all mount
up with wings of eagles.
Start small and at the beginning. I who began a good work in them will bring it to completion through you.
You have been listening first to yourself and those above you in authority instead of me and the students. You are to hear and
serve me first, then the students, and then your administrators and self.
Hear and translate the heartbeat of your students as you hear the waves of my heartbeat in the ocean surf and you shall see
academic miracles as you have seen personal miracles among your students.
Not knowing why, concurrently and in harmony with this message, Barbara had a flashback and began hearing the first four
sentences her father spoke to her after four years of silence on the day of her wedding when he walked in the back of the church at the
last minute in order to walk her down the aisle.
As she sat at the edge of the surf she heard her earthly fathers voice once again saying, I am sorry. I was wrong. I am here
and will never leave or forsake you. I love you Barbara.
Instantaneously Barbara felt something long broken in her heart being healed by God. She realized that, not until that morning
at the beach in Galveston, had she ever truly forgiven her earthly father for what he had done to her - his abandoning her emotionally
and financially in her junior year of college.
The Lord spoke again and she recorded in her journal, Many of your students have been hurt as you have been. Many have
gone through emotional and family abandonment. Tell them your personal story. Be my voice in their lives. Acknowledge their
circumstances and the injustices. Let them know you are always there for them. Let them know forgiveness is essential for both
personal and academic growth. Pray secretly and in agreement with other teachers at the school that the youth will be reconciled with
and forgive their parents. The prayers of righteous educators are powerful and effective. Press on and press in. A new day is ready to
dawn in your mission field, your career in education. (To be continued.)
Prayer: Jesus, speak to the hidden needs of our hearts. Speak your living word into our lives and the lives of the students we serve.
Reflection: Do I have any hidden unforgiveness toward anyone? What is God personally telling me about my career?
Getting Real: Get a journal. Record what God speaks into your heart. Meditate upon these words and obey them. They are life!
CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: Love Ladders Love Matters (For info or prayer contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 5