standing in the gap

My first full week in the classroom after the concert craziness has been just that - FULL! Rather than teaching all 7th grade maths, I’m now working specifically with 7.5, a class of 36 7th grade students that are taught in English for all 7 periods. (Each grade in Worcester Primary School - WPS - has 4 classes. .1 and .2 classes are taught in Afrikaans, with the .1s being the higher achievers, and .4 and .5 classes taught in English, with .4s being the higher achievers) My students come from a variety of socioeconomic groups and ethnicities - Afrikaans, Xhosa, Portuguese and Arabic to name a few. There is one white boy, a few Indian students, 5 Muslims, and the rest are split between Afrikaans colored and Xhosa black students. They are the “lower achieving group” of the two English-taught 7th grade classes and they are known as the trouble-makers.

I.LOVE.THEM.

At first, I was quite intimated to hear their reputation in the school and then to be told that I’ll be with them from 7:30am-1:30pm every day. Granted, there is another teacher in the room most of the time, but sometimes it’s just me and them...just one of me and 36 of them. To say I am relying on God’s grace is not an understandment, but God is giving me a glimpse of His heart for them. It hurts my heart to see the despair in some of their eyes and to hear them talk about how they know people don’t think they’ll amount to much. God has given them passions and dreams and He has created them to be wonderful, unique, incredible individuals with hopes and gifts - I BELIEVE that He has SO much more for them than the implied limits that have been holding them captive.

God gave me 1 Tim 2:1 in the staff room on Thursday. It says “I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.” He also reminded me of Col 4:2-6, verses I hung on to my first summer on FCC staff. I know He is calling me to standing in the gap for these kids. I desperately want to breathe HOPE back into 7.5. They are such funny kids, and although they talk ALL the time, they have a voice worth hearing (just preferably not while a teacher is talking) and dreams that deserve a chance to be lived out! And they really aren’t all trouble makers. I love them. I’m praying God will continue to grow my heart for them and that He’ll be able to reach out and love them as I lay me down and let Him have His way in my life.

Will you join me in praying for 7.5? Pray that God’s light would burst into that class, that chains of poverty and false religion would be shattered and that these students would be an example of Christ’s love to each other and to their school. Pray that they would know the power and the unfailing love of our Savior.

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