Teachers Change the World

I have been blessed to be able to volunteer at two schools while in Kenya. The first photo is of field day at the private missionary school that the kids at SOHK attend with about 10 students per class and the second photo is of the public school with about 80 students per class.
 I never in a million years thought that I would be teaching a class. While volunteering at the public school I absolutely would not teach by myself, it was far to overwhelming and the public schools often use physical pain as a way of teaching the students right from wrong. Though the teacher in the bottom photo is a good teacher who... I hope never beats her students... many of the other teachers in the school do. At the private school that I have been volunteering at recently, they do not hit the children. The teachers here are often even greeted by the students with hugs rather than handshakes accompanied by faces filled with fear.
I am speaking from experience when I say, one great and inspiring teacher can change your entire life!!!!
I am very happy to see the positive reinforcement that is being used to encourage the students at the Yasha private missionary school. Every morning we begin the day with worship, devotionals and prayer. I actually lead the third grade class in devotionals yesterday and it was really different for them because I did not read a bible verse then ask them questions. I just asked a question, "What do you think are the two most important things that Jesus teaches us?" The responses that the children thought of included, obey your elders, help the poor, and never tell lies..... I told them that all of those answers are good but what I was looking for specifically was,  1. Love God 2. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. My mother has taught me many things but the thing I think I have heard her say most is to treat others the way you want to be treated and so that is all I could think of telling these kids.
Later I was in the grade 0 class and we were having silent play time and one of the girls in my class kept hitting her dolly. So I made an announcement, "No Hitting people, No hitting animals and no hitting toys." a few minutes later I see her hitting the doll again but this time she was saying to the doll, "Don't cry, Your not allowed to cry!!" I pulled her to the side and talked with her. I asked her why she hit her doll and tried to explain to her that its not ok for humans to hit animals or  people or even dolls. I told her that if she sees people being hit that she should tell a teacher and pray to God for help. she shook her head as to say she understood and I told her to join the others in silent play time but, without abusing the doll. I know why she was hitting her doll and I am sad that I couldn't do much more than tell the teacher when she returned to the class..... but, I hope that the school looks into her home life and that maybe things will change for this little girl.
One teacher can change your life, Mrs. Poole changed my life in fifth grade.... I was a slow learner and at that time I was very discouraged with myself. Mrs.Poole encouraged me by pointing out the little things that I was improving in and slowly the encouragement lead to confidence. I was shy back then especially in school because I thought that no matter what I said there was another student who could say it better, read it better or even solve a problem better. As I became more confident in school I also became more confident in my life and eventually I not only made it to a university but I graduated with a 3.33 and it's all thanks to the one teacher who changed my world. Thank you!

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.