I AM ...

I am a prophetic and hope-filled teacher who calls out the destiny in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I wonder how long before the first girls hear the voice echoing in the wilderness and begin to come forth. I already hear the roar of the Lion of Judah and the buzz of the bees hovering, flitting and zinging, over the dead carcasses which lie at the Lion’s feet. Then I see a crowd of girls marching on the mountains at the sound of His thunderous voice. I peer over the horizon anxious to see them come, lame with club-foot, bent with palsy, crawling or ram straight, but coming over the mountains, through the wastelands and desert places, steppes and valleys, over one step at a time. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the destiny in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I want the roads to be made smooth, the crooked paths straight, and the mountains a level-plain so that weak knees are strengthened rather than injured. I pretend not to doubt or question how some of them have become so injured and how we will survive in a world with such malevolence as to harm an innocent child. I feel anger when I see the scarred faces and hacked-off limbs. I boil with rage over the injustice and abuse of it all. I touch their dreams like clay, wet them with my tears, and begin to shape them with my fingers. I worry about how fragile their dreams are in my hands and whether they will shatter. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket.

I cry when I see wasted lives and resources and broken bodies and spirits. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket. I understand how big the problems are (lack of education, abandonment, family dysfunction, disintegration, and sexual sin). I say that we, the girls and I, can change these things. They say if you want to change the world, educate girls. We can stop terrorism, end childhood disease, improve economic conditions in our countries- truly lead with justice, fairness, and equity. I dream of the day when every child in Africa, Asia, and every hamlet and village receives a quality education and reaches their potential. I try to make the deaf ones listen. I try to open the mute ones to speak of their pain. To the listless, I encourage them to lift their eyes. I hope to see at least 50 schools built and my girls the president of the countries where they were once oppressed. I am a prophetic and joy-filled teacher who calls out the best in her students and impels them into their future like a rocket.