Teachers Can Learn, Too

by Micah Ray

While James and I have as a central focus of our ministry to train teachers, I still realize that we still have a lot to learn. In fact, God was teaching me while we were leading our most recent workshop.

Tonight, we began a four-week series at Westchester Baptist Church. When we talked to the associate pastor who had invited us to speak, he informed us that he had about 4 people who had confirmed that they would be there for the first class. So, I ran 10 copies of the handouts -- more than double the number we were expecting to be in the workshop.

Around 6:30 pm, about 3 people drifted into class, and we figured that these were the ones that the pastor had referred to. Then a couple of more drifted in. "Wow," I thought. "This is going to be good -- a couple of more people than we thought."

Then 3 more came in.

Then 2 more came in.

Then 2 more came in.

That's right -- when we started class, there were 12 students!

Now for the good part. We were excited that God had blessed us with 3 times the number of students we expected, but then I realized the irony of one of our main themes for the night -- "The Prepared Teacher." Here we were standing in front of this group who didn't know us, expecting us to be some sort of experts, and we start talking about being prepared and we don't even have enough handouts for everyone! Does anyone else see the irony here?!?

When the night was over, James and I looked back and laughed about it. God has a great sense of humor -- and a great way of keeping us humble. It was all His work tonight to bring those people to us. He brought them to us to teach us a lesson and to encourage the pastor.

(By the way, we've since talked to the pastor, and he's received great comments from all who attended this first session. God is good!)