So, I got the chance to go catch a movie with some friends this past Thursday and it was such a fun time. After catching a car back to my apartment, I was getting ready to go to sleep, I had to teach the next day and was really tired. I started to hear my phone ring and was really confused. It was after 9 pm, I had no plans and no real reason to be hearing from any of my friends at this point, but when I checked the name, it was one of my students. I let it ring, honestly thinking it was an accident, and then checked her messages. Long complicated story about learning management systems short, she had gotten locked out of her account and had a quiz due in two hours. So, she was panicking. While part of me wanted to leave it to the morning, it wasn’t a big deal, would not have impacted her grades, and I had a raging headache at this point, something in me sat down and opened my laptop to figure out what was wrong. Thirty minutes and several messages back and forth later, it was all ironed out and she was back in her account. I crawled into bed and didn’t think much of it. The next morning, I woke up to voice messages from her apologizing and thanking me. It was a moment that reminded me why I’m teaching English online, thousands of miles from home. To get the chance to be the teacher that loves and supports students in ways where they experience the love of the Father is why I’m here. And so, while I won’t always be able to answer late night requests from my students, it was a sweet reminder and peek at how I can support student while being an online teacher.
My first month living overseas and starting work has not looked exactly how I thought it would. And this interaction was a reminder that the Father’s plans usually are not something I can predict or expect, but when I let go of trying to have control, he always has a great plan. This experience was a really encouraging one for me, teaching online has left me with few chances to get to interact with students so it was so sweet to get to help a student!
Remember that His plans are always much bigger, so trust the process.
Till next time,
Anna