~and if you were there~

Today I need to say "thank you" to someone I have never met, nor probably will I ever.  It was someone sitting in the pew on that Sunday morning on a summertime day in 2016, a person who reached deep into their pocket as the offering plate came around.  

It's a long overdue word of thanks and for that I am sorry.

My first experience as an Oklahoma teacher was the 2016-2017 school year.  I had one year as a teacher in Petrolia, Texas just after Mike and I had moved from Colorado.  Even with many years of experience behind me, the state of Texas would not grant me a full license without my taking a battery of tests that would end up costing a whole lot of money.  Because we lived right on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, I decided to pursue an Oklahoma license for the next year instead.  

The whole process of obtaining a license here was about as easy as could be.  The state of Oklahoma welcomed me with its proverbial "open arms" and from start to finish, it took less than 8 weeks for everything to be in order.   All of the endorsements on my Kansas certificate transferred over and my years of experience were honored.  I remember calling my sweet sister Sherry, a retired and veteran Oklahoma teacher herself,  to tell her the news.  She seemed so happy to hear what had happened and told me something I won't forget.

"Welcome to Oklahoma!  If you ever need a teacher's assistant or a substitute, just be sure to tell that I'm available!"

My first teaching job in Oklahoma was at Big Pasture Elementary School in Randlett, only about 10 miles from our home in Burkburnett, Texas.  We'd seen the school before and I often wondered what it would be like to teach there.  That summer I was offered a position by a woman who would become my new principal but even more important, a very dear friend.  I remember the discussion we had as I stood in my new classroom on that hot day in June.  It was apparent that the Big Pasture School District was getting by on the bare minimum, as most small rural schools do in Oklahoma.  There was no custodian on staff and it was up to the teachers to clean their own rooms each day.  I learned quickly how to sweep and mop a classroom,  and many times it was on a Saturday morning.  For a year I did that and the experience was a humbling one.  No longer did I take for granted that a custodian would come in to clean up the floors and take out the trash.

The custodian was the teacher.
It was me.

I also learned that year that money for classroom budgets went by two names, "Slim and None".  I'm sure the look on my face as I was told the economics of it all must have been one of utter shock.  I'd always had some type of money to use throughout the year for things that came up and were needed for the kids.  It might not have been a large amount, but at least it was something to tide us over during the lean times of January and February.  Although the school had no budget line for classroom supplies, the good folks at the First Baptist Church in town had taken up a collection one Sunday morning in the summer of 2016.  They knew how tight the money was and wanted to help out as best they could. Each teacher was going to be able to have a share of that money and that was all there was.

I spent my $25 as wisely as I could.

So to the good people of First Baptist in Randlett, now 4 years later, I want to give you once again my heartfelt thanks for what you did on behalf of teachers and kids that day.  You could have just let the offering plate pass by you but my guess is that you did not.  You dug deep into your pockets and opened up a little wider the billfolds in your purses.  I'm going to also guess that it didn't stop there.  You more than likely prayed us all the way through our school year and beyond.  I hope you know how grateful we all were for it and even though words of thanks were given at the time, you really should know this~

"I never forgot you or your act of human kindness that day.  I tried to be a good steward of that gift as I squeezed every little penny from it that I could.  I spent wisely as I continued to pay it forward on your behalf."

All over the country there are people who quietly work behind the scenes to help out those of us in the field of education.  First Baptist Church of Randlett, Oklahoma is just one of many churches that I have seen step in and take up the slack.  Countless other folks donate school supplies, clip Box Tops for Education, read to children, volunteer in classrooms, watch out for kids as they cross the street or walk down the sidewalk home each day, help out with gifts at Christmas time, and in countless other ways.  

The list could go on and on and on.
And it does.

I believe teaching puts me right smack dab in the middle of the "mission field", and you know what?
I can't think of a better place to be.

I truly have the utmost of respect for this fine woman, Diane Bejessie.  She hired me on that warm summer day to come and teach at Big Pasture Elementary.  Diane was the principal but that was just one little thing in all the other things that she did that year.  Even though many miles now separate us, we continue to remain good friends.  Thank you Diane for everything you have done for the kids there!

At Big Pasture Elementary School the idea that a kid can go to college when they leave high school is highly promoted.  Each teacher in the elementary school that year chose a university for their students to follow.  I was not a KU graduate but I am surely a "Jayhawker" so it didn't take long for me to decide which one I'd ask my 3rd graders to learn about and support.  Friends and family members back in Kansas found out that I wanted each of my kids to have a KU shirt to wear.  It took no time at all for each kid to receive one.  

 Sherry never got to be my substitute and only visited my class one time that year.  She was in the final stages of COPD and her illness kept her from venturing out that far.  As a veteran teacher with well over 40 years of teaching experience, she retired in 2010 from Altus Public Schools in southwestern Oklahoma.  One month after school was out, she died.  I lost the very best teaching partner I ever had on that June day in 2017.