In the Field: A Gift of Teaching

She goes to work. She goes to church. She shops with her friends at the mall. She lives her life the same way she would in her Missouri hometown. But now she lives near 21.3 million other people - quite the change from her small-town life at home.

Carolyn Summers is a missionary in the Philippines and lives just outside the capital city of Manila, a city that according to World Population Review has 111,002 people living in every square mile.

Carolyn is a missionary teacher at Faith Academy. They start school early so they can avoid the majority of rush hour traffic caused by those 21.3 million residents. Otherwise, their students could be spending six hours in the car instead of three.

About 500 students attend Faith Academy, and Carolyn teaches roughly 65 of them. Many of her students are missionary kids (MKs) or pastors' kids (PKs). Some of them live with their parents throughout the Philippines; some of them board at the school. All of them need Jesus.

Carolyn with some of her students

"The biggest difference [between teaching at Faith Academy and a US public school] is the fact that education is important, but first and foremost, they have a relationship with Christ, or at least we want them to," Carolyn said of her role. "Yes, I teach them, but I also spend a lot of time just talking to my students. How's this going? I know you were reading about this in the Bible. What's up with that?"

While Carolyn was a university student in the US, she met a couple who worked with Faith Academy. When they found out she was studying to get a teaching degree, they encouraged her to consider going to the Philippines. She met with her mentor and told her, "I can't stop thinking about this. It's driving me insane." Her mentor asked if she had prayed about it, and she realized she hadn't yet. After a few weeks of prayer, Carolyn told God she would go.

At the time, she planned to graduate from college, spend time raising support, and leave as soon as possible. But things don't always go as planned. It took a few extra years, a second round of graduate school , and some much-needed time with family, but Carolyn was able to be in the Philippines for the 2016-2017 school year.

Carolyn's students in her classroom

During the last school year, Carolyn taught pre-calculus, Advanced Placement Calculus AB, and Advanced Placement Calculus BC to students at Faith Academy. Next year, she will also be teaching AP Statistics.

She also helped with the JV boys volleyball team. "I am not very good at sports, so most of my time was spent chasing balls," she said. "The thing about volleyball is I know the game enough, and I know the proper form that should be had. I can't do it, but I can show you how to do it. Outside of that, I was really just there to help organize and make sure things happened."

Teachers talk about the "aha" moments students have - the moments when a topic finally clicks with a student, when the teacher knows they've got it. And Carolyn said she has some of her own "aha" moments this year.

One time after school, one of her students had come into her room to give her some help. They ended up talking about his experience as an MK. When his life as an MK first started, his father was in a limited-access country. Because of that, the student was not able to tell his friends what his father did. If he did, his father could get kicked out or be killed. Carolyn said that this student was made at God because he couldn't share who he or his father was. Now that he is at Faith Academy, he is able to share that he is a missionary's child, even if he can't share all the details, and it has changed his relationship with God.

Carolyn with more Faith Academy students

Carolyn says moments like that are some of her favorites from her time in the Philippines. She enjoys getting to talk to her students about life. Because many of them are seniors, she has been able to talk to them about transitioning to the next stage of their lives and how to maintain a relationship with God through that time.

"It's just those moments where I can learn things about a student that impact me personally, but also what I do and how I do something," Carolyn said. "It's kind of worldview changing."

Many people in the Philippines consider themselves Christians, but that isn't always true. "In the Philippines, you have to be really careful about how you talk about God," Carolyn said. "Essentially you have to ask them if they know Jesus."

Even though her job puts her in contact with mostly Christians - co-workers, students, and their parents - Carolyn does have the opportunity to share Christ with those who don't know Him. "It happens more naturally than you think it would happen," she said. "I run into someone at the mall who knows someone, and we start talking. All of a sudden, we're talking about Jesus."

Carolyn is back in the United States until early July. She is getting to spend valuable time catching up with family and friends while support raising. But she is still working. She's leading a Bible study with some of her students via Facebook. She traveled to Texas for a week to refresh herself on teaching AP Statistics. She will be heading back to the Philippines in early July and plans to stay there until God calls her somewhere else.

Prayer requests from Carolyn:

• For her students to seek God
• For support raising

If you would like to learn more about what Carolyn is doing, you can contact me or visit her blog. Or if you would like to join her support team, you can visit give.teachbeyond.org/support/carolyn-summers/.

*All photos provided courtesy of Carolyn Summers.