Let's Talk Teachers

It’s time for some teacher talk. Teachers are more than a classroom background noise in a Charlie Brown special. “Wah wah woh wah wah wah.” So let’s hear it for the teachers! Today we’re recognizing the incredible commitment and passion it takes to be a schoolteacher in the communities within Lempira. 

Last week, while collecting letters from sponsored children, staff members of Sowers4Pastors met a new teacher. She is currently traveling more than two hours each morning to get to her school. This isn’t like some lengthy but bearable commute in the U.S. She’s not cruising along listening to podcasts or audiobooks or catching up on some sleep while riding a commuter train. She is traveling two hours on bad roads. Her children currently attend school close to their home but she believes it will be necessary to have them attend the school where she is currently teaching. She is hoping to find an affordable rental house near the school since there are no apartments in the area. 

Alejandro explained, “Being a teacher is not just a job people do for income in Honduras. It is a passion for the students. The schools don’t have many resources. Because of that, the teachers have to search for help with supplies and classroom resources. If they don’t find the help, they will never get the resources they need.”

Recently, S4P brought some classroom decorations for the schools. These included numbers and alphabet letters to go on the wall–the sort of things we might find at Dollar Tree, but that are highly valued commodities in rural Honduran classrooms. 

The schools usually only have two or three teachers. However, there are some schools within the Lighthouse Church sponsorship area with only one teacher. That teacher is fully responsible for educating 1st-6th grade students. It’s like something straight out of a “Little House on the Prairie” episode. Understandably, it is not an easy task for the teachers. 

“We know they are not just in it for the money,” Alejandro said. “We pray every day that God will give them strength in their hearts and the wisdom to do their jobs in the schools. Each time we go to the schools to give backpacks, we take extra supplies for the schools. Each time, the teachers start crying. The government doesn’t help with supplies. The teachers are so grateful for everything they receive. Last year, Lighthouse Church also brought supplies for each school in their program. Sometimes the schools don’t have markers to use–or even paper. These gifts gave them the tools and supplies they needed for their classes. We pray for every teacher to have the strength to continue to teach their students.”

There was some sad news, as well. Last week, a teacher of more than fifteen years was a victim of a bus accident. This was a teacher the S4P staff knew well. She was always the one to open their doors to the ministry each time they visited. Last year, when a team from Lighthouse Church painted the school where she taught, she was in tears. She shared that it was an answered prayer. She will be missed by the ministry and certainly by the students whose lives she touched. 

On the day we spoke, Alejandro said they were getting ready to give out backpacks to kids from three different locations, in the FBC and Settle programs. They were going to set up at one location and the children would be rotated in and out of that area to receive their backpacks. They will give out backpacks to 250 kids, as well as some classroom supplies to help make the lives of the teachers a little easier. Several of the sister churches in the States chose to donate supplies to the schools this year, which is a huge blessing, and those get handed out when the S4P staff is on site delivering backpacks.

Please pray for the teachers of the programs who sacrifice so much so the children of Honduras can get an education. And please pray for the S4P as they travel about to distribute the backpacks and supplies.

- posted by Christi

Teachers and Sunday School teachers from the sponsorship programs at a training event