The tall lady steps out of her small car. All the children and Sunday school teachers including me welcome her. “Selamat Pagi!” She says good morning to everyone in our own language with a big lovely smile and shakes our hands warmly.
The joy of the Lord is glowing on her face, even twinkling from her big blue eyes. She starts her two days of children’s meetings with a short, simple song written on a piece of cardboard with pictures. She reads it clearly, and explains the meaning of every sentence and picture. The children sing joyfully and then join her short prayer sentence by sentence using very simple language.
We are all ears while she is telling us her story, except for Hendri. He is running all over the room during the first session. As usual, none of the Sunday school teachers can handle the restless bundle. But our lady continues teaching, serene and smiling. At tea time, she approaches Hendri, takes him in her arms and gives this five-year-old boy a big hug with all the warmth of Christ’ love she has. We are amazed and impressed, all the more because, for the first time, Hendri sits quietly for the following sessions. He even joins in whatever the lady asks the children to do.
That moment impacted the rest of my life. It was in 1976. I was sixteen years old at that time. My mother, my younger sister, my elder brother and I were Sunday school teachers in a small village church, Indonesian Presbyterian Church, located in the beautiful hills of Batu, eighteen kilometers from her working base in Malang, East Java.
Every word she has taught me in the Sunday school teachers’ workshop is so true. She gives me a clear example of how the Living Word lives in her and enables her to bring the Living Word to living children. I understand what she is telling us: every teacher is a living visual aid for the children.
I experience the truth of her words every time I put what she has taught me in practice. “Every time you teach, you are learning.” “When you have to tell a difficult story, you have to pray a lot; but, when you have to tell an easy story that you’ve learned by heart, you have to pray more.”
🙂 eva kristiaman
menemani 