GYC SE 2013: Called Apart

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GYC Southeast

Alyssa Williams

GYC SE 2013: Called to Serve

Christ in the Classroom

Richard Maskelony

Answer Today and Q&A


Happy Sabbath! Thank you so much for all coming. It's nice to see your guys' faces here. Before I begin, I'd like to start with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this Sabbath day that you are here with us and that you called us to rest and just reflect on you.

God, I pray that you speak through me and encourage all of us to serve wherever we are. In your name, amen. All right, so I'm excited to share with you guys my student missionary experience in Pohnpei. I chose to be an SM not because God had this loud booming voice that said, Alyssa, go be a student missionary. It was more of just a thought that would pass through my head like, you should go serve, go serve, go serve.

And after listening to that thought, I ended up in Panapé teaching second grade of 18 wild, crazy students that I loved, and I was there for 10 months. If you guys don't know where Pohnpei is, it's an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Before I got to Pohnpei, I knew 2 things. First, I knew that I was going to go away for 10 months and focus solely on serving God. And the second thing I knew was that I wanted to teach second grade.

I had no clue the amount of patience that I would need, the amount of stress that I would be under, and how frustrating I would have to handle situations, frustrating situations. I also had no clue the amount of love my heart could hold or the amount of joy my children would end up giving me or how much how much my students would end up teaching me. The first day of school I had my lesson plans done, I had my classroom decorated, it was about to be filled up with students and I was ready to teach. But I was also really nervous and so I went to morning worship and after morning worship I remember standing in the hallway with 2 of my new student missionary friends and holding shaking hands, we were praying that God would lead us through this day. And you guys, God answers prayers.

I got right to my classroom and all the butterflies went out the door and teacher Miss Williams came to life and I was able to greet the parents, assure them that their kids were safe with me and I was able to meet my kids. We went right into getting to know each other and singing songs. And it was when we were singing, Father Abraham, have many sons, that my heart just filled up with so much joy. I could barely sing because I wanted to laugh. And That kind of joy only comes from our Heavenly Father.

Well, I went through, I looked at my lesson plan, I got to know the kids, I went over my rules and procedures, we did some other activities, and then I looked at my watch and it was 930 and I was completely out of stuff to do. I had just totally not lesson planned enough and so somehow I think I played heads up 7-up with the kids And we made it to our 10 o'clock PE. And there I realized that I met up with the other elementary teachers and we all just had this look on our face, like what did I just get myself into? And Somehow, with God, we made it through the day, and those next couple of weeks were just totally devoted to learning how to better lesson plan, how to discipline, how to manage our classrooms. It was really a frustrating and stressful time for me because I had 18 kids and I was trying to teach them verbs It's what you do, but I couldn't get them to do anything, but just talk to each other and so it was a lot of trial and error and I laugh as I look back on that because after practice and just getting to know how to be a teacher, the next quarter was a lot more manageable for me.

There were times where I would walk up in front of my classroom and just look at them and be like, how do I get them to be quiet? And I'd turn and face the chalkboard and just breathe. OK, God sent me here for a reason. And I knew that I could get through this. I believe God uses the people around us to help us to get through difficult times.

And there were 20 other student missionaries with me on the island of Panape. Now at first when we were in Hawaii for orientation and I saw how many other kids were going with me, I was like, oh, maybe I should not go, like, I'll go to another island with 1 or 2 people, I'm going to rough it up, you know, this year is for God. But God knew what he was doing when he put 20 other missionaries on that island because we would have greeting parties where we would swap stories and just tell each other our school experiences. And they really uplifted me and encouraged me and our stories would be something like this, like I was so tired that I just told my kids that if they had a question, just come see me at my desk so I could sit. But then the next minute later, I would have 16 kids in my face saying, miss, I need help.

Miss. But at least I got to sit down. I loved that I had the opportunity to be an example of Jesus. My kids came from homes of abusive fathers and that is something that is totally acceptable in Pohnpei. And so even if I knew 1 of my kids was going through a rough situation at home, I couldn't do anything about it.

And that was something that was really hard for me to deal with. And so that was why it was so important for me to show them Jesus in the classroom. I had 1 student that had dropped a jar, a glass jar, in my classroom and it made a big noise and glasses everywhere and my kids just all paused and looked up like what is Miss Williams going to do? And to me it's like okay mistakes happen like it's okay. And so this was my turn to just say, you know what, it's okay, we all make mistakes.

I still love you and God still loves you too. I loved our Jesus talks. If you guys have ever talked to little kids and talked to them about Jesus, you know exactly what I mean. We would talk about our angels and how our angels must be friends because they always see each other. And there was 1 moment where I just briefly mentioned that when I pray I like to picture God at his heavenly throne.

And the next day after I prayed, after morning worship, my student Caitlin raises her hand and she says, Miss, Miss, I pictured Jesus at his heavenly throne when you prayed. And it was just little moments like these that warmed my heart and just made all the hard stressful times worth it. Every Friday for chapel, first through third grade would meet. And chapel was a chaotic time, but it was really fun and our kids loved getting together and we would sing songs really loudly so that the whole school could hear us. And after singing we usually had 1 of the teachers improv a Bible story or something like that.

And 1 time I actually had my kids act out a Bible story that I was telling. And they loved it. They had so much fun on stage and just being goofballs. And that was actually 1 of my favorite things, like, about teaching second grade was because I could just pull that, I'm a second grade teacher, I can be a goofball with you guys. So it was really fun.

1 student that always made me smile was Norman. Norman was like the Winnie Pooh of my classroom. He had the biggest smile and he was a really smart boy. But I would be teaching at the board, look over and Norman's off in his own other world. It was like whatever he had, a water bottle, a pencil, he was making it a game.

And I could not get him to focus. And so I would go up to his desk. Norman. Norman. The kids would join in.

Norman. And finally, he would wake up and realize that I was standing right there. And he just gives me this little smile and I couldn't help but smile back. It was really hard to be mad at him. And every time that Norman was sad, all I had to do was pull out the tickle spider and he would just smile again.

If you were a fly on the wall at the school, you would see a jungle gym of crazy kids. I mean, these guys were running everywhere, always hanging on you. By PE time, they were sweating, you were sweating, all the sweat was mixing, and it was just a lot of, go back to your desk go sit down be quiet and hearing miss Miss he hit me miss She pushed me and we went over the classroom rules a lot But this taught me how to be firm with them. And that's something that a lot of them don't get in their home life is firm parents in the correct manner. So it was a good opportunity for all of the teachers to have that in the classroom.

They would also have trouble focusing on school lessons. I would normally teach my lessons up at the board and then we would do a couple examples on the homework together and then I'd give them time to work individually. But it was right when I was done teaching and going back to my desk, miss I don't get it, miss. So I'm like okay I'm the teacher, like I'm here to help. I go over to their desk and nothing is written down on their paper.

Like we just did 5 problems together. You can't even copy them. So it just like really tried my patience. And I would go back to my desk and kind of just pray, write out prayers to God. Like, God, I am trying to teach, but they won't listen.

And there were so many times where I just hear this soft little voice, like, I am the same way. I am trying to teach you. You just need to listen. I volunteered. Oh, what made it all worth it was those moments of Mark saying, aw, miss, I get it, or Kavika improving on his reading, or watching Makiva and Vitra at the chalkboard pretending to be Miss Williams.

You know it's okay if Alex has trouble adding as long as he keeps trying which he always did and it's okay if Darius struggles at math as long as he knows that I believe in him. Sometimes my students were so good at teaching each other, and they always loved to make me happy. I would always be so in awe when the classroom was quiet, where I would just stop and look at them, and like, whoa, he can get this quiet. And it was during 1 of these quiet moments that they were working at their table, and little Alex said to his table, he was like, guys, guys, shh, shh, be quiet for myths. And it was so sweet because they already were, but they just loved making me happy.

I also volunteered to direct the school Christmas play. Now, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this. I would leave my dirty, messy classroom at 3 o'clock and run over and try to get these kids to listen to the play. And directing and stuff would prove to be a challenge. There was 1 point where I was like, I need to get a new Charlie Brown because this kid is not memorizing his lines and I can't have like, you know, him up here with his lines.

But he completely did a 180 and he memorized all his lines and he became my little assistant director and he was so good at like getting the other cast members quiet and listening to me and after we had a week before the play and I was still like, how am I gonna pull this off? Like, we are not ready for this. Play night comes, you guys, everything went so smoothly. The music, the sound, my kids knew their lines. It just went really good.

The only mishap we did have was the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, the little wimpy Christmas tree, went missing in the beginning of the play. And so my friend comes up to me and they're like, we can't find the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. And so I was like, go out to the trees, cut off a branch, stick it in a water bottle, and we had our little Christmas tree. Another thing we had the opportunity to do in Pohnpeiwe was outreach on Sabbath. Now We had hospital outreach, which was always fun to go and play the guitar and sing to these people.

You don't realize how much of an impact you have until they tell you. Because a lot of the times we would go, and we're singing and stuff. It's something that we always do. But there was 1 time where we were singing to the sick. And a lady came up to all of us individually while we were singing and put perfume or lotion on us.

And to, in Pohnpei, that's just a sign of like, we really appreciate you and like, we're so grateful for you guys right now. And so you really do make a difference whether you know it or you don't. Whatever you're doing in life is going to make a difference to someone else, and that's what it's all about. We also got to go out to the villages and play with the children, and we would go knock on doors and gather up all the kids. And we would sing Bible songs with them and tell stories.

And this was just a really awesome opportunity to get to know other kids besides the ones that went to our Seventh-day Adventist school. And sometimes they didn't know English, but you know what? You don't have to know the same language to serve God and to love him and to sing. And so that was also a really great opportunity for us to get out. 1 thing that I loved in Pohnpei was going camping.

It's so beautiful out there and you just can't help but feel close to God and feel like you're in his presence. We would go to outer islands and we would just look up at the stars and just, it's just you and God out there. Or we would go snorkeling and see all the different colors of fish and just the coral, everything that God made for us. And it was really awesome. There was 1 story.

I have a lot of mishaps that happened while I was camping and snorkeling and stuff. But 1 story that I'll share with you, it was 1 of our first camping trips. We were still kind of getting to know each other with the other SMs. And my 2 friends call me over. They're like, hey, hey, Alyssa, if you whistle into this crab, then the crab will come out.

And so I whistled into the crab. And sure enough, The crab came out of its little shell. And I was like, OK, that's cool. And somehow, it came up as, oh, you should kiss the crab. And normally, I don't know why I would agree to kissing a crab.

I don't think I put the crab on my lip. But somehow, it ended up there. And it completely attached onto my lip. And at first, the guys were like just kind of laughing, like they didn't think I was serious, but once they saw like tears rolling down my face, they were like, oh, Okay, we should probably get this crab off this girl's lip and like it would not come off every time They tried to pull it off. It would just pinch in tighter and like the whole time we were trying to get it off I was like laughing but crying at the same time like why is there a crab stuck on my lip right now?

Is this really happening? And I mean, 1 of the guys came over and put oil on my lip and tried getting it off. And they eventually just got a knife and cut the legs off and stuff. And I still have the shell to remember that crab bite. God taught me so much my year in Pohnpei.

He taught me that no matter where I am in this world, that I have to seek him. There were times where I was just so emotionally and physically exhausted that I didn't want to do anything. But the days that I chose to start my day with God and to make him a part of it, he was so evident in it. And he used my children and the other student missionaries to show himself to me and to get me through it. He also led me to change my major, so now I am an education major because I just realized that.

My passion is being with kids and teaching them and loving them, so I'm really excited for that. My students weren't just my students. After water bottle opening and shoe tying and cleaning up or maybe teaching them how to clean up their own throw up. I became their mom. They were my children.

And all of my student missionary friends that I had spent every single day with for 10 months, they became my family. And it was a really bittersweet feeling to leave Pohnpei. In America I've noticed everyone is so independent but in Pohnpei you don't really have anything to do but to be with each other. And even if you wanted alone time, it was really hard to get. So, but I loved it because I think that's what God calls us to do, to fellowship with each other.

Most of all, it makes me look forward to heaven when we can all be together and forever with no goodbyes and just all serve the God that we are completely in love with. So this is my missionary experience. Thank you so much for listening. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org.

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