“Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart as working for the Lord and not for men.” Colossians 3:23
Growing up, I always wanted to be a teacher! Fortunately for me, my mom was an elementary teacher and provided me access to a wealth of teaching supplies. These "treasures" enabled me to set up my own pretend classroom in the basement of my childhood home, and coerce my younger sister and her friends to be my pretend students during many summers of my youth.
In 1984, I upgraded from the basement by graduating in with an official teaching degree from Concordia University, located in Seward, NE. Equipped with tubs of books and materials, I passionately entered into my first classroom, located in Reed City, Michigan, where I had the joy of teaching Kindergarteners in the morning and First Graders in the afternoon. Wanting to do something fun and exciting during the first few days of school, I saw an idea in a teacher magazine for "Tongue Painting" with chocolate pudding; it just seemed to call my naive name! However, I decided to put my own spin on it, and rather than have students sit at their individual desks (because that could get messy!), I hung sheets of butcher paper up on the wall and smeared each sheet with chocolate pudding so that my future Picassos could stand and each create their own individual pictures in chocolate pudding with their tongues. What my twenty-two year old brain did not calculate into this experience was how much saliva little children generate and how that extra ingredient would make the pudding extremely runny! My new students had a blast with this project; however, I did not have a great first encounter with my new custodial staff, as the extra runny pudding slid off the paper and ran down the freshly painted white wall! I found out very quickly that sometimes in teaching, things don't always go according to my plans, and it's a good thing that God's in control!
One of the greatest blessings of teaching is all of the treasured memories that teachers have the ability to collect. Ask any teacher to tell you their funniest story, and you will be shocked how fast he/she can instantly retell the situation like it happened yesterday! Ask any teacher to tell you his/her most endearing memory, and there is a good chance you will be brought to tears listening to the details. Most importantly, ask any teacher to recall how they saw God work in their classroom, and you will be amazed at the endless amounts of stories!
This Sunday, September 15th, St. Matthew Lutheran Church will be celebrating the various ministry milestone anniversaries of the following staff members, each who have an abundance of their own precious ministry memories:
Five Years: Mrs. Paige Osbron
Ten Years: Mrs. Gail Adams
Twenty Years: Ms. Kelly Lacy and Mr. Bryan Davis
Twenty-Five Years: Mrs. Rebecca Masters, Mrs. Dawn Rupe, and Mrs. Amy Weston
Thirty-Five Years: Ms. Laura Toman
Forty Years: Mrs. Susan Palka (but I think there must be a mathematical error because in my mind I’m still 39???)
St. Matthew Lutheran Church will be hosting a reception in the HUB between services on Sunday to acknowledge and thank these workers (approx. from 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.), so please come and join this celebration!
It is such a gift to serve in ministry at St. Matthew!
In Jesus’ Love,
Mrs. Palka