Arise, my people! Let your light shine for all the nations [students and staff] to see! For the glory of the Lord is streaming from you. Isaiah 60:1, TLB
At the age of 35, after serving in education for thirteen years in the United States, Virginia sold and gave away all her possessions to leave the United States and enter the mission field as an English teacher in communist China. Since then, she has served for several decades in this foreign field at three different public Chinese universities. God has given her immense favor with the students and her administrators. She not only teaches English but also several American culture studies, including The Bible as Literature course, which she proposed to her director several years ago. She holds an optional Bible study class for students on Sunday evenings. She has “loaned” hundreds of Bibles to students during her many years of service. (It is against the law to give them away.) Some of the students she serves have made life-transforming decisions to follow and serve Jesus Christ because of her quiet, unassuming witness.
When asked about the courage it took for her, as a single woman, to leave her culture and family behind to serve Christ in a communist nation, Virginia humbly shrugged it off, saying, “It’s not courage. It’s just obedience.”
Virginia is a lighthouse courageously shining over a dark terrain, sweeping the education landscape humbly and fearlessly while standing for Christ.
The call to arise and shine in today’s verse is not reserved for a few extraordinary believers; it is an invitation for every educator who belongs to Christ. You may not realize it, but your faithfulness, integrity, compassion, and witness may be lighting the way for someone walking in darkness. Do not underestimate the power of one obedient life. This week, choose one intentional way to reflect Christ more clearly in your school. Let your classroom become a lighthouse, and trust God to use your light to draw others to Himself.
Lord, help us arise and shine, to illuminate the educational landscape around us through our love for and obedience to You and those whom we serve. Amen.
Copyright Don Clark.
Don is a retired elementary special education teacher. He faithfully served for many years as the Houston area director for Christian Educators.
