Ringing the Bell for Higher Ground

Dear Teacher,  

Two Wednesdays ago, just as school was starting, a 30-meter-high flood wave traveled 75 kilometers per hour and ripped around a bend in Nepal, taking away two bridges and destroying every single house on the riverbank.  It also destroyed the town's school, where Headmaster Rajendra Dadabi saved the lives of 1,643 kids by leading them from the school, across town, to the high ground.

If you were to look it up on Google maps, you would see that the Tribhuvan Trishuli Higher Secondary School is now marked as "permanently closed."  The three-story school has literally vanished off the face of the earth.  Not a trace remains after Nepal's deadly flash flood washed it away.  Yet, just before that happened, Dedabi rang the bell, sending pupils and staff to high ground, and even had the presence of mind to call inbound bus drivers to tell them to turn back.  Thanks to Dedabi's quick thinking and decisive leadership, not one student was lost.  Nepalis are hailing him as a hero.

And you, Teacher, there in your classroom are saving lives, too.  You're using your educational professionalism, God-given instinct, and sixth-sense perception to detect what is out to destroy your students.  Not only are you combatting cultural and societal foes, but you do so in way that embeds Jesus in the minds of students.  As you daily fight mortal and immortal enemies, you remain calm, level-headed, and decisive, grounding yourself daily in His word so that when the unexpected rips around the corner, you can ring the Bell of Truth.  So as we embark on another school year, whether the battles you face are personal or in the classroom, your heroism shines in how you fiercely protect your students from eminent danger and lead them to Higher Ground.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."  ~Ephesians 6:12 

Ringing With You,
Mindy
Christian Educator & School Counselor