I Would Walk 500 Miles

By Mrs. B :-) 2011

While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind ! Your great learning is driving you mad." Acts 26:24 (italics added )

If your homeschooling house is like mine was, this verse has caused a chuckle or two over the years. It has come back to my mind as I am now teaching an ESL class in our area . I team-teach with a young missionary named Brandon, and we have between 8 and 12 adult students; most are Burmese refugees into Thailand. They are of the Karen (Kah-wren’) ethnic group. Recently we studied Mary McCloud Bethune (there is a HS project that you did not even ask for!) and how she did not have access to education like American children do now. We talked about the importance of education, and all of them said that learning English was very important to them. There was a question in the book, “Would you walk five miles to class in order to get an education?”

Two young Karens emphatically said that they would, in their broken and heavily accented English. I expressed surprise, especially as most of the others shook their heads “no.” But I was not really surprised. A week earlier I had wracked my brain for a way to explain one of their vocabulary words – element – to them without knowing a word of Karen. I wrote “Periodic Table of Elements” on the board, wrote some of the elements with their atomic numbers, and drew some molecules of water, not sure if anyone would understand what I was talking about. These two started naming more elements and their abbreviations (since I did not know them, to my embarrassment!).

So it did not surprise me that they would walk five miles to go to class. It did not surprise me, but it did challenge me. Would I walk five miles to class to learn Spanish? Hebrew? Karen? Of course, I wondered if I would walk five miles to learn the Book that Paul, and I, love the most. Could anyone ever say of me, “MrsB, your great learning of The Book is driving you mad!”

Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. Psalm 119:97

Prayer:
Abba, as we seek to teach our children and grandchildren about You, Your ways, and Your creation, put a great hunger in us to study Your Word. Put a great desire in us to model reading, studying, and learning how to do new things for Your glory. Let the eyes that watch us see that we take great delight in learning, too.

Challenge:
Memorize the Periodic Chart. (Just kidding!) Really, take the children for a walk and measure off a half-mile, a mile, or more. Then get in the car and measure five miles, if that is too far to walk right now. Ask your children if they would walk five miles to church or school? Share with them that there are people all over the world who walk long distances to church and to school. Pray a blessing on all those in the world who walk miles to learn about the Lord.

Mrs. B :-) 2011