On this, my second time working with the Jaffray Centre’s Ang International Educational Initiative, I had the pleasure to teach in four different schools in two different countries—the Philippines and Vietnam.  This venture kept me on the road, teaching all day long for four weeks in a row with only a day or two off during the whole time.  Even on Sundays I would either be preaching or travelling to my next destination.  By the end of it all, I was exhausted. (I am still not sure that I have fully recovered.) I considered myself to be quite dedicated and even, on my less than stellar moments, hard done by.
While in Davao, Philippines, I spent a week teaching an Ethics course at Koinonia Theological Seminary.  The class was composed, almost entirely, of national pastors.  It did not take me long to realize that in order to take this course and to further their education, each of these men was still serving his church full-time during that week, that each was scraping together the money to  pay the tuition by themselves, and that almost all of them were making long daily trips on transit or scooters (usually in the rain!!) just to be there. In light of all of that, who could blame them if they would have arrived at class with a less than stellar attitude.  Instead, every one of them displayed a positive and attractive spirit; every one of them was engaged in and contributed positively to the class.  While I was sent there to teach (and I hope that in some way that I did), in this case, the teacher became the student. I observed how those who are involved in the work of the Kingdom, even when the immensity of the work might seem overwhelming, must find their joy not in their circumstances but in the fact they are co-labourers with Christ Himself!

Read another angExchange story here.