Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. Matthew 18:19, NIV
Taylor Ray Elementary School in Rosenberg, Texas primarily serves a highly mobile Hispanic student population with over 75% of the students coming from low-income homes. It is predominantly a blue-collar neighborhood. Few children have parents who graduated from college, yet this school is a nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School and has received numerous other accolades and awards. The average test scores for many years have ranged from 90 to 100 percent.
What are the keys to this school’s success? Well, the most important factor contributing to this school’s achievement is consistent agreement in prayer by staff members. For over fifteen years, at least two (and sometimes up to thirty) teachers from this public school’s staff have faithfully met every week that school is in session to agree in prayer at the school during off-duty hours. Every year since the staff members started agreeing in prayer, the test scores have risen.
God says if we seek Him first, He will add all things unto us. As obedient members of the staff have met and sought God together through prayer, He has added high academic achievement. Furthermore, an atmosphere of love pervades this school. Truly no child is left behind, not because it is mandated by law, but because it is taught by Jesus to serve the “least of them” and to “leave the ninety-nine sheep to find the one that is lost.”
God says, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” (Matthew 18:20). God dwells in this public school. He is the key to this school’s success.
Lord, help us hear Your call and grant us the courage to agree in prayer regularly at the schools where we serve. Amen.
Copyright Don Clark.
Don is a member and a retired elementary special education teacher. He recently retired from his role as the Houston area director for Christian Educators.
