Divine Assignment

Jack stuck his head in the door after classes and I waved him in. “Are you busy?” he asked hesitantly.

“No,” I said. “I am just doing email. I don’t have internet at the hotel so I catch up here after classes. Sit down and tell me about your day.”

Jack sat down and launched into speech. “We just got back from our community walk. We went to the Japanese grocery and down the esca, escala—that thing that goes up and down -- and then we helped our teacher find things and he told us the English words. This class is so good. My English is already much better.”

“Are you having fun?” I asked.

“Oh yes. I am.”

“Good,” I said. “If you are having fun, you will learn a lot.”

We talked a little longer before he took off to catch the subway home and I reflected on how far Jack has come in a short time. I met Jack in early May on his campus, a technical school that accepts the students who do not score well on the college entrance tests. He was dressed that night in a suit, white shirt, and lovely lavender tie. He’s a handsome kid, and looked stunning, but he was literally shaking with fear. He introduced himself to us, but was so frightened that he could hardly put two words together. That night he gave a speech, and struggled and stuttered all through it, still shaking.

The next three days were English Contest days on his campus and we saw him often. From Monday to Thursday we saw huge progress. He stopped shaking and began talking. We invited him to this English summer program, and the first day he arrived with two friends.

Jack’s teacher is a retired rocket scientist with a PhD. He’s landed a class that has several young men in the technical sciences. He doesn’t see himself as a good teacher – he never worked in a classroom. But that is quite beside the point. He does realize though, on this his second time to teach in China, that he is here to build relationships, talk with his students, get them talking, build their confidence, stretch their vocabulary, help them get over their fear.

Jack will probably never get a PhD. In fact, he’ll likely end up in a technical job and may never leave China. But as he talked to me yesterday, fearlessly describing what he had done in class, he said, “I never thought I could talk to a foreigner and not be shaking.”

In the global village that is Jack’s future, this summer will make a significant impact on his life. He will know that people from across the globe are just like him at the core, and that he doesn’t need to shake when he talks with them. He will come away understanding that older men with top degrees will give their time to young men with no degrees, if their Father leads them to serve. Jack doesn’t know his teacher is here on a divine assignment, but his teacher knows he is.

Jack may even meet the Father in his class. He’s there each day with the rocket scientist.