The DMV & ESL

Last summer Church of the Apostles announced that they would be sending a team over to Rwanda to teach English to some of the Pastor’s & teachers in our sister church and network. I remember getting excited about this idea and thinking that would be something I thought I could do. But at this point it was only an unspoken idea in my head & heart that I had not made any decision on one way or the other. I hadn’t even really mentioned it to my husband Mike. It just sounded intriguing.

Later that week I had to take our son Brenden to the DMV to get his full provisional driver’s license. As we were standing in line before the DMV opened I was feeling tired and unusually un-social. I was wearing a t-shirt with “Sanderson Athletics” on it; this is the high school our children go to. The woman in front of me turned around and asked who went to Sanderson and we started to chat. Come to find out she used to teach at Sanderson, she used to teach ESL at Sanderson AND she was the first person to teach ESL in a Wake county high school. On top of that she and I both commented on how that morning we acted against what our normal behavior might have been. I was tired and not feeling very social at all and she was unusually open to chatting with someone when she usually likes to stand silently while waiting for something.

Now how about that! Our church had just announced a trip to Rwanda to teach English and this wonderful woman in front of me not only used to teach it in our school system but also now runs a business that trains people to teach English as well as teaching English out of her church; Forrest Hill Baptist church. AND she started a conversation with us when she usually wouldn’t have done that. A coincidence or, as I call moments & events like this, a God thing??

I quickly asked her if she had a business card; when I returned home I called one of the women at church who I knew was helping to organizing this trip and left her a message with the information on the business card. Soon after this I attended an information meeting about going on the trip to Rwanda and took home an application to submit to be considered as one of the people chosen to go on this mission trip. At that meeting I remember asking if anyone had been in touch with the woman I had met but no one seemed to know anything about it. I went home and immediately filled out the application and Praise God I was chosen to go to Rwanda!

  

As we started to meet and prepare for the trip one of the things that was set up for us were the ESL classes we would attend to become certified in teaching English. I kept asking if this was through the woman I had met but no one seemed to know. When we attended our first class I walked in and THERE SHE WAS!!! The wonderful, God loving, international loving woman I had met at the DMV and as I started to refresh her memory of our meeting she immediately said “Yes I remember meeting you & your son at the DMV”. Glenda is an amazing woman who has turned teaching internationals to speak English into an opportunity to share the Gospel with everyone she teaches and I know she has furthered God’s kingdom in her service to others. We learned so much from her, not the least of which is that we need to pray before every lesson we teach and rely on Him in moments of insecurity, frustration or disappointment as teachers.

Thank you God for putting Glenda & I together at the DMV that day and for her love for you that she shares with others who might never learn anything about you!

Jennifer Kromhout