Beyond Classroom Community: the moment my perception flipped.

My whole world changed last May. I learned my value as a teacher and realized my students changed me more than I changed them. They were the source of strength that I never saw coming. I want to share the value of community beyond the classroom walls. My school community supported me through one of the darkest periods of my life. The students, their families, coworkers, and friends got us through a nightmare.

I need to back up to the start of the year to make this make sense. I taught four high school classes last year. I love my students, and I aim to change their lives forever. I was influenced by a teacher when I was a senior in high school, and my life has never been the same. My teacher was a Bible teacher, but I do not teach a Bible class. However, I teach at a Christian school, and one of my goals as a teacher is to integrate the Bible and my Christian faith into my class.

My faith is part of me, and those who know me well know it is as much a part of me as my eye color. It is woven through every aspect of my life. You cannot take my class and escape this. I pray daily in class and have a phrase I close with each year. Last year, it was something about the Lord guiding our paths and our hearing and understanding his voice. I do not plan my closing; it just comes. This year, I ask the Lord to help us watch our words and actions to glorify him. It is just something the Lord places on my heart.

Every day, my classes prayed together. They would share prayer requests with me in class and privately as well. In the fall, one of my more challenging students came privately and asked for my prayer for his mom. I knew that I had planted a seed in him. I had softened his heart somehow, and he would help me more than he would ever know.

In March, my youngest daughter started having back problems. She was a competitive cheerleader, a flyer, and a tumbler. We thought nothing of it and took her to the doctor a few times, but she was not getting better. My classes prayed for her back pain along with their prayer requests. After five weeks of not getting better, we got her in for an MRI. Here is where the story really begins.

The MRI revealed my daughter had a tumor on her spine. Our next stop would be a neurosurgeon. That word was enough to put enormous fear in me. We visited the neurosurgeon, and he told us that he believed that our daughter’s spinal tumor was secondary to a brain tumor. Just typing this brings back the pit in my stomach and the emotions of that day. I left the office with my husband and daughter in a state of shock. He took my daughter with him, and I drove home separately. I started making calls to my school and friends. We had a week and a half left of school, and I knew I would not survive or make it through finals. My school was in as much shock as I was, and they told me not to think another thought about my classes or job. They told me only to take care of Sally. We went home and packed our bags for the hospital so that Sally could start a battery of tests.

The word got out, the staff started praying, and the messages of support blew up my phone. They ranged from sweet prayers to offers of Uber Eats for any meal day or night. This still makes me smile thinking about my AP offering to get us Taco Bell at any hour.

The following day, the MRI was scheduled at 10:00. Sally had to be put to sleep, and I was scared as I had never been scared. I forgot to mention that I had a breast biopsy this same week, was a grad student, and was planning my oldest daughter’s wedding all during this time. My friend sent me a picture that was my lifeline. I looked at the Head of School in the hall with the sweet faces of the students in the high school, and this image made me feel better. I didn’t know what to pray to God, but these folks did. I knew God would get us through, but this image was so powerful. It was the comfort I needed.

CHOA had never seen so many girls visiting a child during our stay. They would not even let them in her room at one time. Sally had to go outside with her classmates, and they tiktok’d like normal. That afternoon, we learned the brain was clear. I felt the prayers, and they were a massive source of comfort. After the brain scan was clear, the next test was the biopsy. One test down, one to go. The texts, flowers, gifts, and visitors kept coming. I learned through this that there is a ministry in just being. No words needed to be said, but just coming to sit with us was comforting. In our school chapel, they showed a message from Sally and me, and we asked our friends to keep praying. This was our lifeline. I also learned that it is okay not to know what to pray and let others intercede on our behalf.

The biopsy was clear, and after a five-day stay at CHOA, we were cleared to go home. Sally did not return to take finals, but they let her come and get her yearbook signed. I wanted to go back to see my students and the staff. I cannot describe the feeling I had to go back to school. I wanted to see those students and staff I had shared life with the whole year. I wanted to thank them for their prayers. I wanted to see their faces. I will never forget the looks on the students' faces when they saw me. I had loved them unconditionally all year; in that moment, I knew they loved me. The hard days and stresses I had experienced during the year disappeared. I gave them their finals, and we prayed together as usual, but something had changed. The sixth-period class of rowdy boys was no longer wild. They had the most compassionate looks on their faces. If I remember correctly, I asked for a student to lead the prayers that day because I could not get through them without crying, and I told them this.

That was the 2022-2023 school year. It was my eleventh year of teaching. As tough as the year, and especially that spring was, I was forever changed. I have tried to conjure ways to repay the support our school community provided us, but nothing is of the same value. This year, I have a different perspective. School is much more than an education or a job. It can be life-changing. For me, as a student, my faith journey started at school. I think that has come full circle. I think some of my students have been changed, too. Through a tough situation, there was goodness. The Lord has blessed me with a job I love. I cannot imagine walking through that season of life without King’s Ridge Christian School, our friends, church, and family. I have learned that in the darkest times, there is light if we look hard enough.