Missions Trip #1 is only 1 week away!
It started innocently enough. My first true subbing assignment was in a special education room. The students questioned me about Africa, fasting, and whether women have to wear skirts to church. (No this wasn't a Christian school, it was just God at work.)
Then there was a question here and there about kids with special needs. But who am I? My experience is in general education. True, my classes have comprised of students with special needs, and ironically my favorite students have usually stemmed from that population; but my 5 years' experience is in general education. Yet, as I write I recall that my very 1st student when I first began teaching professionally was a student with special needs... man I loved that kid!
Despite the previous paragraphs I had never thought anything about a future in educating students with special needs. Even when I found out about the Jill's House opportunity. I thought, "wow what a great idea to reach a group of people so often overlooked"! I personally had never really ruminated on the challenges of raising a child with physical, emotional, and or cognitive disadvantages. I had never had to.
Jill's House Short Term Missions
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_kh0b_hUY
Then came the book, Out of My mind by Sharon Draper. I was subbing. A student was reading one of my favorite authors and I promptly went to the library and secured the book for myself. In three days I ingested the world of a preteen who had no ability to speak and very little ability to move her limbs. I was fascinated! Again I had never really thought about life from such a perspective. I may have even cried, and I definitely laughed with her, at my own ignorance.
Then I started to notice a pattern and began wondering what God was doing in me concerning children with special needs. Job offers came, the information that one "easy" test could grant me special education certification just so happened into my lap. BBC Africa reported on a Cameroonian who ran a school for students with special needs and I found myself tearing up. Then the kicker came just the other day as I was riding the bus.
I boarded the bus to the sound of a woman's acrid command to "put your hands down". Despite the harshness of the tone, I assumed that whoever the voice belonged to, she was talking to a little child. Unknowingly I headed to the back of the bus when the command erupted again, from the back of the bus! There was no little child, just the woman hurling the piercing commands and what appeared to be a grown man. I promptly turned around and headed back to the front of the bus. For the next 8 - 10 minutes the same command boomed through the otherwise silent bus with subtle variations and increasing exasperation. It didn't take me long to realize that the "man" had special needs. And my heart was saddened for them both. It throbbed for the mother who cried out "you're not a dummy so put your hands down!" And then crumbled as the boy began wailing. Loud bass sobs resounded through the whole bus, and not another sound could be heard. As I prayed for this woman and who I assumed to be her son, I thought of how many frustrating and embarrassing moments they must experience. I thought of how few people can truly understand and relate to their situation. But even as I thought and prayed, my mind turned to the African continent. What about the children with special needs there...
I don't know where this path is leading, but I believe it's only a beginning.
One week and counting-
Missions 2014
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." -C.S. Lewis
It started innocently enough. My first true subbing assignment was in a special education room. The students questioned me about Africa, fasting, and whether women have to wear skirts to church. (No this wasn't a Christian school, it was just God at work.)
Then there was a question here and there about kids with special needs. But who am I? My experience is in general education. True, my classes have comprised of students with special needs, and ironically my favorite students have usually stemmed from that population; but my 5 years' experience is in general education. Yet, as I write I recall that my very 1st student when I first began teaching professionally was a student with special needs... man I loved that kid!
Despite the previous paragraphs I had never thought anything about a future in educating students with special needs. Even when I found out about the Jill's House opportunity. I thought, "wow what a great idea to reach a group of people so often overlooked"! I personally had never really ruminated on the challenges of raising a child with physical, emotional, and or cognitive disadvantages. I had never had to.
Jill's House Short Term Missions
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_kh0b_hUY
Then came the book, Out of My mind by Sharon Draper. I was subbing. A student was reading one of my favorite authors and I promptly went to the library and secured the book for myself. In three days I ingested the world of a preteen who had no ability to speak and very little ability to move her limbs. I was fascinated! Again I had never really thought about life from such a perspective. I may have even cried, and I definitely laughed with her, at my own ignorance.
Then I started to notice a pattern and began wondering what God was doing in me concerning children with special needs. Job offers came, the information that one "easy" test could grant me special education certification just so happened into my lap. BBC Africa reported on a Cameroonian who ran a school for students with special needs and I found myself tearing up. Then the kicker came just the other day as I was riding the bus.
I boarded the bus to the sound of a woman's acrid command to "put your hands down". Despite the harshness of the tone, I assumed that whoever the voice belonged to, she was talking to a little child. Unknowingly I headed to the back of the bus when the command erupted again, from the back of the bus! There was no little child, just the woman hurling the piercing commands and what appeared to be a grown man. I promptly turned around and headed back to the front of the bus. For the next 8 - 10 minutes the same command boomed through the otherwise silent bus with subtle variations and increasing exasperation. It didn't take me long to realize that the "man" had special needs. And my heart was saddened for them both. It throbbed for the mother who cried out "you're not a dummy so put your hands down!" And then crumbled as the boy began wailing. Loud bass sobs resounded through the whole bus, and not another sound could be heard. As I prayed for this woman and who I assumed to be her son, I thought of how many frustrating and embarrassing moments they must experience. I thought of how few people can truly understand and relate to their situation. But even as I thought and prayed, my mind turned to the African continent. What about the children with special needs there...
I don't know where this path is leading, but I believe it's only a beginning.
One week and counting-
Missions 2014
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." -C.S. Lewis
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