It's All About the Benjamins

Maybe it started when I saw the animated Robin Hood as a child, the one with the dashing fox starring as Robin Hood. Maybe it was growing up on Indianapolis' east side making fun of all the "rich kids" that lived on the north side. Maybe it was all the movies like, Slumdog Millionaire, I watched over the years whose heroes were the determined, poor child who overcame all odds to succeed. Whatever it was, it has been ingrained in my mind that the poor are the underdogs who need to be rooted for and helped. The upper classes were just people who put on a facade all their lives that I could care less about. This thinking is one of the reasons why I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be the one who would help the poor and the needy. I wanted to be that "hero" teacher for those children whose homes were in turmoil. Whatever problems they faced outside of school, I would help them succeed in school and in life. With all this in mind, how did I end up where I am today?

I teach at a Christian school in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The vast majority of students that attend the school, are very wealthy. They have the material things of the world at their hands. They have the silver spoon in their mouth with a nanny using it to feed them. "What could I offer them?" This is not the demographic that I intended to serve when going into this profession. I wondered aloud, "Have I taken a step backwards in fulfilling my goal to be that "hero" teacher?" There was a verse that echoed in my mind though: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

These same rich that I showed a disregard towards in my early life, are in a dire situation. Jesus explicitly mentioned the difficulty they would face in coming to his kingdom. There is more in this world for them to cling to making it difficult for them to humble themselves before Christ. Judging from the verse, they are the people that you look at and say, there is no possible way that they could be saved. And that is the beauty of it all. There is no way they could be saved apart from a miracle. And that miracle takes the form of Jesus Christ, for all things are possible with God. And it is in this setting that Becki and I have been placed as teachers. These students may know wealth like I will never know, but that does not mean that they are not in need. They are in need for a salvation that is impossible apart from God. Therefore, I have not taken a step back in fulfilling a goal for my life, I have taken a front seat in watching God miraculously work in these children's lives with the best part being that in all of this, I get to be the avenue through which they hear about this God who loves them.