Teachers get godly advice

FAITH

By TONY PALME
TEACHING, one of the noblest of professions on earth after healing and preaching, an extension of the Ministry of Jesus Christ, must be done with love, care and dedication, a teachers gathering has heard.
At the regional Teachers Christian Fellowship held at Kugark in Jiwaka last week (March 24-27), teachers from the Evangelical Brotherhood Church (EBC) schools from Chimbu, Jiwaka and Western Highlands were told that teaching required commitment, patience, passion, compassion and loyalty because this profession is solely responsible for nation building.
EBC Jiwaka Education Secretary Elizah Pyakua told teachers not to take themselves for granted just because they deal with chalk dust and were confined in classrooms with children.
“This duty is the first of all jobs on earth that God sanctified and bestowed directly to mankind. Don’t teach just for a fortnightly salary or to impress your headmaster, principal, church education secretary or the education minister.
“It is your duty to teach from the heart. Be an ethical role model that instills Godly character, discipline and morality into the young minds.

“Ask God to give you wisdom to teach to the best of your abilities. Your influence will live in the hearts of a generation forever,” he said.
Churches have played a pivotal role in partnering the Government in the provision of education alongside health and spiritual services since before independence.
Pyakua thanked teachers teaching in the church agency schools for their contribution in developing human resources of the nation.
“You are very special teachers because you’re like teachers and preachers at the same time. You deliver Christian philosophies as well as curriculum materials required by the government.
“When they call you a public servant, you should be proud and embrace this tag wholeheartedly. It is one of the blessed profession of all as teachers directly deal with thousands of human lives.
“You will face challenges and stiff opposition at your workplace. Never give up. Learn from Nehemiah who never gave up.
“Despite criticisms and opposition, he kept on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He was a man who prayed a lot to God to give him the courage to accomplish his purpose,” Pyakua said.
The life of Nehemiah was the study undertaken in the three-day retreat.

He urged teachers to always pray to give them the wisdom to teach well.
He recommended teachers to always pray to gain the inner strength to do their job diligently.
“Prayer is one of the greatest weapons to quell all forces of resistance and sets you focused.”
Jiwaka education planner Wai Kants said to really enjoy the career, teachers must connect with Jesus.
Missionary Ruedi Meier emphasised that headmasters and principals should display attributes of servant leadership to win favour from teachers and students.
“Sometimes senior teachers have to get low to get close to their teachers. If teachers work as a team with the true spirit of unity and cooperation, they can be able to achieve a lot of results.
“In the days of Nehemiah, the priests of Israel have helped Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
“Teaching young children coming from various family background and culture and ethnicity is like rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.”
Meier pointed out four things that derail a teacher from progressing which he strongly felt should not happen in the EBC established schools:

1. Principals and head teachers must not prevent teachers from going for inspections as it prevents development of schools.
   “We must encourage teachers to develop professionally and celebrate with them when they get promotions. This would motivate them to do many good things.”
2. Principals and head teachers must not desire money too much as it can tempt them.
   “We need the help of the Lord to help us manage money wisely so that everyone can be happy.
   “This country has enormous resources to become one of the richest in the world if we change our mindset.
   “I have never seen one single country which I have visited so far in which politicians dish out cash to its citizens.
   “It’s only happening in PNG. This is not right. This is a wrong influence where leaders make people become lazy and is the start of corruption.”
3. Teachers who are married must be content with the partners they have.
   “The first target of the devil is to destroy marriage. It’s advisable that married couple should avoid double marriage and be faithful to one and other.
4. Teachers must avoid the habit of relying on credit to meet daily expenses.

“Avoid borrowing money because it can affect your professional life and family.
He reiterated that being on loan is a very dangerous lifestyle.
“The Bible offers us the best advice to live a happy and prosperous life.”
He also warned teachers against accessing pornographic materials which can become an addiction.
He urged teachers to stay away from being addicted to alcohol because it only brings sadness and dryness in life.
“We must control these things. We must allow Jesus to give us peace. It doesn’t matter what church denomination you come from but I want to see all teachers in EBC schools to be happy and smile all the time.
“The education system in this country will only improve when we uphold God’s word and righteousness at all times.
“How we started our life is not what matters but how we end this short life means a lot,” Meier added.
His message to the teachers after the gathering is to remember 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.”
Teacher Education Division assistant secretary Allan Jim, a devout EBC member and patron of the UPNG EBC students encouraged the teachers to perform to the best of their abilities.
While sharing his life experiences with the teachers, Jim revealed that he draws inspiration and motivation from this motto: “If I don’t do it, who will do it? If I don’t go, who will go?
“If we can utilise our skills and potentials and work together, we can produce quality human resource for this nation.
“The education department wants to see quality teaching and learning taking place in all schools with quality monitoring.
“You can become like Nehemiah. You can become ambassadors of change.
“You are directly responsible for seed sowing. We must ask. What kind of seed are we going to sow?
“Nehemiah was a man of integrity. We as professional teachers must maintain our integrity.
“We must not compromise our integrity as teachers by drinking alcohol publicly, chewing beel-nut and smoking in the eyes of the public.
“We must earn the trust and confidence of the public as professionals.
“We don’t like seeing teachers that stand in front of the classroom in very poor dressing with betel nut stained teeth and teach in Tok Pisin.
“These are some of the practices that is letting the department down big time, thus, affecting the quality of education in our country.”
Jim announced that they have a filtering process through which the division is looking at recruiting graduates with a GPA of 2.4 and above.