Biblical Integration

Integrating my Christian life and biblical truth into the math classes that I teach here at this small Christian School in the Dominican Republic has been the biggest challenge I've had since I’ve been here. But in biology it has never been hard. It seems like every class something comes up that cries out for the Creator to speak.


Recently it was the subject of energy flow … all the way from the sunlight that the autotrophs (plants) capture and turn into food by photosynthesis, to the heterotrophs (animals) that eat the food produced by the plants and convert it into energy by cellular respiration.

The last step of this flow of energy is when the organism dies and other organisms called decomposers (bacteria, fungus, worms) cause decay, and the energy is released back into the environment. I read several passages from the Bible about the certainty of death and gave a couple of stories of animals I’ve seen that had a blanket of worms on them after dying. It was a perfect time to remind them that physical death is certain, but it is not the one to fear … it is spiritual death. It was a gospel moment.


On the way home on the bus that the teachers ride I heard another story that helped me focus more on the reason that I am here. A fourth grade teacher at SCS, who is herself the daughter of missionaries in Africa, told me of an incident that happened in her class just before a lock down drill that the school was planning.

She was running through the procedure with them so they would know to hide in a certain corner of the room when they heard the three short blasts of the air horn. While they were hiding she would lock the door and crank shut the louvered windows. One of the children with great sincerity asked her if she would be able to hide also. She explained that she would hide but only after she made sure they were safe.

One thing that elementary teachers have learned is that when children ask questions they ask extremes, like, “What if there were TEN guys and they ALL had grenades and rifles?” She assured them that the bottom line is that she would die for them if that is what it would cost for her to protect them.


At this point several of these little nine-year-olds began to cry … like real tears …, “You mean, Miss, that you would actually die for us?” Some of the students in her class began saying that they would die for her too … the same response the disciples had when Christ was discussing his coming death. This was a gospel moment that you couldn’t pay money to create. There is someone who has already died to make sure you don’t have to die. What an opportunity this Christian teacher had to share the gospel one more time.

Sometimes I wonder if I didn’t get stuck on the wrong end of the educational stick. The elementary students seem so teachable and open sometimes. The high school students are not quite so tender. My ministry is a bit different on several levels, I’ve concluded.

The first level is simply age. They are older and not as pliable and teachable. It seems that my attempts at sharing the gospel are on the intellectual, reasoning level … or sharing my own experiences … and they certainly love to listen to my stories. But I don’t see the same emotional response as our fourth grade teacher described.

The second level is personality. My approach to teaching is a time-conscious, goal-centered, no-nonsense, disciplined approach to education. And the Lord only knows how much these upper-class, well-provided-for teenagers need this kind of training. Whether or not they respond to the claims of Christ presented at our school, they will at least be exposed through me to the kind of discipline and hard work and respect for authority that the Christian life represents.


I probably won’t win any teacher of the year award, or be the teacher that seniors ask to speak at their graduation, but they will learn what honesty is, and how to pay attention when I speak, and stay on task during work time, and that there are consequences for laziness or misbehavior. All this takes training and consistency.

Many of these students are raised by nannies not mothers, driven to school by chauffeurs not dads, and picked up after by maids who do what they are told or be fired. So I figure that what they need most is routine. So this is my ministry, and I’ve accepted it.

Just before the bell rings that signals the beginning of class I position myself by the door. At the right time I close the door and take roll. If anyone is out of their seat or talking after I close the door I put a mark next to his name. Then I pray for a few seconds and come to the front of the room to begin the class. We are usually on task within two minutes of the tardy bell.

During class I have three simple rules:
1. Stay seated in their assigned seat during class ... with no talking
2. Look at me when I talk ... with no talking
3. Work during study time ... with no talking.

Any infraction of these rules results in more marks next to their names with detention after three have accumulated.

Class begins with a discussion over yesterdays homework, continues with a lecture on the day’s topic, a quiz over yesterday’s material, and study time to begin the new assignment … in that order. When they want scratch paper for their quizzes I ignore them unless they say “please” and “thank you” and they cannot leave the room when class is over unless the room has been picked up and clean.


These are daily routines which I consistently enforce and it usually takes the student around three months to be comfortable in this environment. This approach has proven very effective in training my students to maintain an effective learning environment. My prayer now is that my teaching ministry will continue to improve as I learn to integrate my Christian life and Biblical truth into the classroom.