Teaching as Ministry

God's call is: "a conviction, that when faced with the facts, continues to grow until it becomes a question of obedience or disobedience" (Ron Binder, Wycliffe missionary).

Since a young age, God's question of "Will you go for me?" has penetrated my heart. Each time I gave a resounding yes, and each "yes" was soon followed with a bigger challenge to share Christ with those in my own neighborhood, the people I encountered everyday. I remember in 4th grade, befriending a classmate from Hong Kong, making up our own language, and eventually praying with her to ask Jesus to be her Lord and Savior. Ever since, then I've had a burden for people to come to know Jesus as their joy and answer, an unquenchable enthusiasm for God's work in people's lives and the desire to serve Him cross-culturally.

During high school and college, I had several opportunities to serve overseas and have just another peek into the grandeur of God and how He is continually healing and transforming, even working in the most intimate details of a person's life. Carrying these global experiences, I was able to lead and prepare my college peers for summer service trips, working alongside established missionaries in countries all around the world.

One year into graduate school, I was hired by an international school in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. God used that year to refine me, teach me more about who I am and was created to be, and how I needed to rely on Him in all situations. I fell in love with teaching overseas, the opportunity to live among another culture and learn their language and customs.

When it came time to leave, I was devastated to leave that community and the strong friendships I’d made. But God had more growth in store, as I completed my Masters of Education and was pushed to become a better teacher, more equipped for what was in store later.

During these months, I returned to my cycle of questioning, “Okay God, now what? I’m ready and willing to go. Now where?” I prayed about direction for months, and felt strongly tugged back towards Central America, but the language barrier was a deterrent for returning, as I felt I couldn’t make and sustain meaningful relationships with people there because I could not speak the language.

What was my heart’s unspoken desire? To learn Spanish.

And God provided the incredible opportunity to attend language school for 4 months in San Jose, Costa Rica: the same language school my grandparents had attended in the 1950’s before heading off to Argentina and later Panama as missionaries.

Meanwhile I was interviewing with different Christian International schools in Latin America. I never thought I would teach in Panama, since it was my Grandparent’s legacy and my mom’s childhood home, but, after sitting down with the director and sharing the same vision for the students and the school, I knew God was calling me there.

So, here I am, being stretched and renewed by God in ways I’d never imagined: teaching middle school and serving as the middle school coordinator at Crossroads Christian Academy in Panama City, Panama. I have the incredible privilege of discipling young believers and sharing God’s truth daily, as I teach students to be historically and globally aware and prepare them to be Christ-like, servant leaders in a pluralistic society.

Though the school does pay me a modest salary and provide housing for the teachers, there are several start-up costs in moving to a new country, such as buying a car. Even with being diligent with saving for an entire year, it would still not be enough to purchase a reliable vehicle here in Panama. Having a vehicle is a necessity here, as the public transportation is unsafe, as well as having a car would open up many new venues for ministry. Car prices for a quality, used car in Panama range from $6,000-8,000.

Please pray and consider partnering with me through prayer and/or financial support.

Click: “How to Give” for more information.

How to Give

Give Online

To donate securely online by credit card or bank transfer complete the simple form at:

https://www.rce-international.org/donate/credit-card-donate-page/

 

Under the “Missionaries” Tab, select “Diaz-Laura-23905”.

You may make your contribution a one-time or repeating donation.

Give by Check

To donate by check, please make checks payable to: RCE International. Please include my account number (23905) on the memo line of your check.

Mail to:

RCE International
PO Box 4528
Wheaton, IL 60189

For an anonymous gift, please indicate this clearly on an attached note.

For a personal gift not intended for ministry purposes such as birthday, anniversary or Christmas gifts, please indicate this clearly by writing on an attached note: FOR PERSONAL GIFT.

Note: Personal gifts are considered non-tax deductible gifts per IRS regulations.

Give by Electronic Funds Transfer

You can also set up an Electronic Funds Transfer option where your donation is deducted directly from your checking or savings account on a monthly basis. Please fill out and return the EFT Form to set up your automatic donations.

Contributions are solicited with the understanding that RCE International will exercise appropriate discretion and control over the use of all tax-deductible donated funds and will use them for the furtherance of RCE ministry while honoring the designation of the donor in accordance with tax-exempt laws and expectations.” (RCE Website)

You can also print this card, fill it out and mail it to the above address.

Any questions or want to know more, email me at: Ldiaz@westmont.edu

Thanks and God bless!

 

Birthday Gifts

My birthday was on September 12th. I was showered with encouraging messages, little surprises, hugs and birthday songs in multiple languages. But most special of all, I received two very unexpected gifts from God.

Gift #1

I have been praying a lot for a specific student lately, who shows attitude and really needs a positive father figure in his life. During chapel on Wednesday, this student was especially on my heart. While the chapel band was singing, I was praying that God would somehow touch him that day, as well as provide some positive male role models for him to follow. Right after chapel, I noticed our P.E. coach sitting down and talking with this student. I wondered if the reason for the talk was misbehavior, so later I asked Coach what he and the student had been discussing.

Coach told me that for some reason, God had just really brought this student to his mind and he felt a strong urge that he was supposed to go talk with him. So Coach pulled the student aside to just ask how it’s going, and talk about identity, who are you? And who do you want to be?. It was a powerful conversation, especially because this student is used to being pulled aside only for misconduct. But right then and there, God touched him through Coach’s words encouraging him to examine himself and reflect on what he believed was true. When asked the hard question of “do you believe all this?” (this meaning the gospel), the student replied with a courageously honest, “no.” Coach communicated to the student that if he ever had questions or just wanted talk that the student could freely come to him.

After Coach told me this story, I looked at him and smiled. “That was exactly what I was praying for!"

1 John 5:14-15

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.^"

Gift #2

Later the same day, I had a student be indirectly defiant in my class, where he was playing dumb about following instructions and overall having a hard time focusing in class. I tried to talk to him afterwards, but he refused to make eye contact, and I’m sure that there must have been an i-don’t-care-and-don’t-want-to-listen broken record playing in his head. So I decided we would walk to the next class together, since it was upstairs, and it would give us some time to talk and give him a transition time to let go of his negative attitude.

We stopped midway through the hallway, and I made very clear to him that these skills of listening and following instructions were skills he would need his whole life, not just in school. Then I prayed for him; I knew the words came from God, because I wasn’t sure when I started what I was going pray. But the words flowed, as I spoke truth over this student’s life, knowing especially that he was loved and cared for by a personal God. He had been avoiding eye contact with me up until this point. But when he looked up from the prayer, for one split second our eyes met, and I could tell he had tears in his eyes.

Something, really the great Someone had gotten through and, after many days of praying and thinking about this student, he was finally at a point where Love could make the first chisel blow into the walls he had built of trying to be the funny guy or misbehaving to get attention, protecting himself from the vulnerability of being the new student in a new country, feeling uncared for or unwanted. But I saw it. A tiny crack had begun at the top of that wall, starting to let in God’s Light and Truth, and I knew who held the chisel.

I walked the student back to class, as he rubbed his eyes and blinked away the water, trying to regain his tough guy composure.

His eyes were adjusting to the Light.

Philippians 1:6

"And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you."