Ministry and Motherly Advice

Each student at our school is in a Ministry Team which is headed up by one of the teachers. The administrator wanted us to bond with our teams and disciple them while teaching them to serve. The idea wasn't bad except that there was no real direction. The teams meet twice a week for one hour - which doesn't give us a lot of time to go out into the community and serve. Our teachers are highly overworked and under paid. Many of us have 5 or 6 different classes that we teach and no prep hour. So planning opportunities for our ministry teams comes in last on the list of priorities. Unfortunately most teams use their time together to play games or do homework. The Lord blessed me with a great team of girls who really have a heart to serve! We have spent HOURS at the local rescue mission doing all kinds of various work for them, we have gone to the retirement center to play Bingo with the older folks, they have graded numerous papers for the elementary teachers, cleaned the school, written letters of encouragement, and so much more!

For Teacher Appreciation Week we decided to organize some special things for our teachers since last year the week went by without any of the teachers being recognized at all. On Monday we brought in a bouquet of fresh flowers for all of the teachers. Tuesday we brought in ice cream for them to enjoy in the afternoon. Wednesday we offered donuts to the staff. Thursday we scheduled a free car wash. On the last day we gave each teacher a $10 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. My girls have sacrificed a lot to be a blessing to others. I am so proud of them!

It rained the day we were supposed to do our car wash, so we did it today. We washed the outside and the inside. Some of those cars gave us quite a bit of work to do, but none of the girls complained. In fact, they thanked me for organizing it all. Can you believe that?!? While we were cleaning some of the more dirty cars, I was reminded of a piece of advice my mom gave me. During my mom's illness we hoped that my mom would make a video or write us some letters so that we could "hear" from her after she was gone. She didn't do it - I think because it was hard for her to face reality. So one day about a week before she died I asked her what one piece of advice she would like to give me that I could hold on to through out my life. I expected her to give me some great piece of wisdom or at least the common answers like, "live life to the fullest." She thought for a minute and then said, "Keep your car clean! It drives me crazy when people trash their cars. Just because you have kids doesn't mean your car should be a mess all the time." I still laugh when I think about her response. That obviously wasn't the type of motherly advice I was looking for - but hey - that was my mom. I couldn't help but think about that story today when I was vacuuming out the cars. I smiled as I realized that I do follow her advice.