Remembered

I always know when a person I taught at school remembers me – they call me Mrs. Foulger. I mean even when I go for a medical appointment, they call me Mary! So, when a young man ran up to me as I was leaving church one Sunday, and called me Mrs. Foulger, I knew I must have taught him. He had sat behind me in church, with three other young men. I had turned around and shaken hands with them when the leader at the front asked us to greet someone we didn’t know. And when I quickly spoke with them all I had this desire to pray for them. There wasn’t enough time though, just a quick hello. Perhaps after the service; but when everything had concluded they slipped out to the foyer quickly, and I thought I had lost my opportunity.

Then one of them ran after me as I left the building a while later. He asked if I remembered him, and unfortunately, I didn’t. I did teach hundreds of young men and women, and as they got older their appearance changed somewhat. But I do wish I could remember more than I do.

He informed me that I had taught him in grade nine religion. I taught in Catholic High Schools, and although I started as a math teacher, I later included some religion classes. All students in the Catholic system had to take religion every year, so there was quite a large need for teachers in that subject. Some teachers were encouraged to teach religion who had no strong beliefs themselves, and that bothered me. They wanted to teach the students some good morals, although they did not personally have a relationship with the Lord. Other religion teachers, I hasten to add, were committed to both the Lord and the church, and they did a good job of communicating truth to the students. Teaching religion was quite attractive to me, so I decided to take a few courses so that I would be eligible to.

I loved the grade nine classes. The students didn’t think they knew it all, not yet anyway. They were open to new ideas, to discussing old ideas, to talking through what they believed. I had such freedom, as long as it was included in the curriculum. And the curriculum was quite open ended.

Every class we would start with reading the Bible. In grade nine my students read through the book of Genesis together, and in grade ten it was the gospel of Luke. We would read a chapter and discuss it. Then they had to write a short reflection on what we had just read. Something that spoke to them in the chapter.

I wanted to include prayer too, but nothing too complicated. Getting students to ask God for something is easy, but I wanted to do more than that. Every day I required them to give thanks to God for something. Initially it was easy – ‘thank you God for my family’, ‘thank you God for my friends’. Gradually I asked for more of them. They had to give thanks for something new, something different. ‘Thank you God for food’, ‘thank you God for my school’. And then go even further, ‘thank you God that I can walk’, ‘thank you God that I can read’.

Of course, I couldn’t remember all that they had given thanks for before, but many of the students took it seriously, and put a lot of thought into what they should be grateful for. And it was a quick exercise every day, going round every student in the class. And I always finished with my prayer of gratitude to the Lord.

And John, this young man who stopped me after church, had been in one of my grade nine classes. About fifteen years had passed since then, but he still remembered what we had done. The exercise had made such an impact on him that he had continued every day to say one thing that he was grateful for to the Lord.

John informed me that I had so blessed him in that class, and I had given him something that continued to be important in his life. That was such a tremendous encouragement to me. And after we chatted, I was able to do what was on my heart earlier, I was able to pray for John.

Not everyone has the privilege of teaching religion in the school system, but many can volunteer in Sunday School. What a joy it is to share Jesus with young people, and to give them tools to continue to use throughout their lives. And what an encouragement it is to find them, years later, remembering what you taught them. God is good.