Source/Author: by Yoshua Chua, Methodist College KL

I belong to a new generation of Gen X-Y-Millennial teachers who have been given opportunities by God to teach the youth of our time. I would like to share with you some of the lessons I have observed over the 4 years of teaching in Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL), an established and growing Pre-University institution of excellence.

#10: A Teacher Can Coach Students To Greatness
Teaching is one of those professions where you spend an extended period of time with individuals, even more than those in the medical or legal professions. A purposeful teacher can help and mentor their charges to achieve crazy feats, whether it be becoming a great Orator, or ditching a medical ambition to pursue teaching or just to reach the ‘tree tops’.

I teach A-Levels Religious Studies and now Divinity, and in 2014, one of our students obtained highest marks in her A-Levels Divinity subject, and won the Cambridge International Examinations Top in the World Award for the subject, beating centers all across the world. As MCKL is the college where one of SPM Bible Knowledge’s strong advocates, Miss Moey Yoke Lai is the CEO, I think all praise should be given to God for His faithfulness

#9: A Teacher Can Be a Friend
This often used phrase still has powerful implications to a very Internet savvy generation. Although many of our students today spend most of their time in the online world, teachers can still reach out to them via Instagram, Facebook or even Twitter to talk, sembang or just to catch up with how they are doing. Social networking, for all its hype, can sometimes be a very lonely platform to be on.

I recount an example where one of my students messaged me privately on Twitter to confide about a perplexing sexual dilemma she had landed herself in. This was perhaps because I was relatively vocal on my Twitter account. I could then share with her some basic principles to help her clear her mind.

#8: A Teacher can Illuminate with Interesting Information
Because many of our students live in ‘echo chambers’- bubbles of friends that talk about the same topics and are of the same ilk-teachers can provide alternative perspectives and challenge a supposedly knowledge-rich generation to rethink some of its assumptions, or better yet, some of its sources!

I like to read from alternative news sources-RT.com, aldaily.com and so on- and would regularly challenge their assumptions on what they know. And not a few have asked me the same question, “Mr. Yoshua, where did you get all this information? How come I don’t see it a lot?”

#7: A Teacher can Warn of Impending Harm
Many of our students do not know of the dangers online pornography or computer gaming in excess can do to their brains, for example (see Philip Zimbardo’s research based publications - The Demise of Guys (2011) and Man (Dis)connected) (2015)). Or even unhealthy food, or exposure to certain types of chemicals. Or even certain online habits or communities which may bring destruction. Teachers can rescue some of their beloved students from such self-destructive behavior.

A few male Christian colleagues and I conducted a 4 week ‘seminar’ in our school addressed to the guy students and we talked frankly (and sometimes very openly) about taboo topics like sex, masturbation and online pornography. We also gave practical tips on how to overcome some of these issues. The students came back to us and told us how they were grateful and relieved that they were not the only ones suffering from these ‘sins that so easily entangle’!

#6: A Teacher can Model Good Character
More than any other profession I would argue, a teacher must strive to model a person of impeccable character and virtue to his/her students. By becoming a ‘model human being’ or a ‘model Malaysian’, or a ‘model Christian’ students can see for themselves walking talking exhibits of all the good we hope to see in this country and beyond.

In Methodist College, we have gone ahead to develop comprehensive Character-orientated student activities which all have ‘Honor God’ as its chief value. The challenge is of course to model such high standards as facilitators, but we hope that with a bit of direction, students will be able to ‘take the good and leave the bad’. Only after we forged ahead did we realize that some of the very successful schools in America have been emphasizing on Character Education (especially GRIT).

#5: A Teacher can Sow Seeds of the Word
As a Christian, our solemn ‘teacherly’ duty is to ‘teach’ and ‘preach the Word’, in season or out of season. When students (whether Christian or non-Christian) ask us searching questions about God, life or relationships, we have an open opportunity to present the Christian perspective, the Christian Worldview and Christian values. How many of us seize such serendipitous opportunities to expand the knowledge of the glory of God and His Kingdom?

I remember a recent example this year when a non-Christian student from a major non-Christian faith confronted me on my apparent ‘Christian-bias’. According to him, I was placing a higher standard of morality on my Christian students (which indeed I was), and I had a wonderful opportunity to share with him the Gospel and the grace of God and why I was imposing such ‘unfair’ standards. He understood after I had laid it out for him but did not become a Christian there and there, yet I would like to think that the seeds of the Gospel were sown in that chance encounter.

#4: A Teacher can be Christ to those who do not know Him
Living in a society that is still largely non-Christian, the schools form the FRONTLINES of the Church’s engagement with our society’s non-believers. Yet although many doors in the Ministry have been closed to promising young wannabe missionaries, where there is a will, there will always be ways to get in, whether through NGOs, or Private Christian Schools such as MCKL, International Schools, and the like. We need to get more feet on the ground and be Christ’s hands and feet, His Eyes and Mouth to a generation that are ignorant of the Great Event on Calvary.

I teach on average 200 students every semester Character Formation classes, and try not to force religion down the throats of the non-Christian students that sit in my classes, but I also try to present the Christian position as faithfully and as tactfully as I can. I went home on cloud nine when one of my students commented at the end of the semester that, “I can see Christ in you.”

#3: A Teacher can Love the Unlovable
In a country where Christians are surrounded, vilified and victimized, teachers can be the foot soldiers to really advance the Kingdom of God by loving our enemies, and laying our lives down for those who hate us, insult the Cross and take away our rights. We can bless them by praying for their sick, casting out their demons and teaching them the true Path to God.

#2: A Teacher can Show How It is Done
If we seek to see a better Malaysia, a country where justice, righteousness and love must be fought for daily, we must winthese battles within ourselves day after day. Once we have conquered the Goliaths of our selfishness, fear and anger, we can take our classrooms, schools and communities through focused lives that are lived for the sole glory of God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.

#1: A Teacher can Change Entire Social Systems
And as said above, I believe a teacher has the power and potential to shake entire ideological foundations through careful, meticulous and profound understanding and instruction of how these systems are put in place. Add in a dash of divine revelation to catalyze the reaction and you have an explosive force for good embedded in your mind. We can become mobilizers, facilitators of a new consciousness, a new way of seeing the world – through God’s perspectives and to empower our students to rise up and be part of these God-inspired visions for a better community that is built on the principles of justice and righteousness. There will be opposition and difficulty no doubt, but that is what we call in Physics as ‘resistance’ and resistance can be surmounted by an indomitable Will that has been set on fire by the Holy Spirit’s zeal. If God is for us, who can be against us? asks the Apostle Paul.

Therefore, my fellow soldiers, the giants in the land are waiting to be conquered. What can we do today to build the Kingdom of God in the hearts and minds of our younger generation?

I believe our calling as teachers is to do just that – to call out a generation that will have the tools, knowledge and know how to stand against the flood of evil. May we keep getting better as teachers, and if the Lord so permits, may the students that pass through our hands eventually see the face of Christ and fight the battles of the Cross and take their stand as solid and mature servants of the Kingdom of God and of His Christ. There is much work to be done. May the Lord help us.

Amen.

(shared by Yoshua Chua at the Klang Valley Christian Teachers’ Day Celebrations on 16th May 2015 at St. Paul’s Church, Petaling Jaya)