I'm a high school teacher in Portugal and this year I had to direct a professional course (9 students, ages 16-20), as well.
It was an extremely difficult task, the obstacles were tremendous and countless:
- One of the teachers skipped lessons for three whole months and there was no one to replace her;
- I had to work overtime (almost 200 lessons, no extra pay!) and complete many others tasks in school, so I had NO TIME whatsoever to properly direct this course;
- I was exhausted and depressed most of time;
- Nobody helped me and most of my colleagues actually tried to sabotage my work (e.g. lying to me and to the students, boycotting the meetings)
- I had to organize internships for all my students and all internships required an insurance that the school was not able to get on time;
- Our students come from the local slums, one of them suddenly became homeless and couldn't complete the course!
- There was no way I could comply with the deadlines, my colleagues were going to eat me alive and the school director was going to be extremely disappointed. Three days before the internships were due to begin, I was a complete mess, I still had to organize three internships and couldn't find a solution for the homeless student.
God is, however, great and He never abandons His people. On thursday, there was a miraculous solution for the homeless student and two of the internships. On Friday morning, I contacted an insurance company that was able to complete a contract in less than one day! On Friday afternoon, a director from a company that I had contacted the day before phoned me and assured the last remaining internship and asked for a copy of the insurance contract (which had arrived early in the morning!).
On the following monday, all internships started on time and two months later all students completed the internships and the course with excellent grades, incl. the homeless kid!
An atheist would probably see here just a series of (extraordinary!) coincidences but what are the odds of that happening?! I never lost faith and I KNOW that God was always on my side and helped me.
By the way, the name of the lovely lady that was able to complete my insurance contract (I repeat, in less than one day!) was Susana Anjo, which literally means Susana Angel. It seems that God has a sense of humor!
It was an extremely difficult task, the obstacles were tremendous and countless:
- One of the teachers skipped lessons for three whole months and there was no one to replace her;
- I had to work overtime (almost 200 lessons, no extra pay!) and complete many others tasks in school, so I had NO TIME whatsoever to properly direct this course;
- I was exhausted and depressed most of time;
- Nobody helped me and most of my colleagues actually tried to sabotage my work (e.g. lying to me and to the students, boycotting the meetings)
- I had to organize internships for all my students and all internships required an insurance that the school was not able to get on time;
- Our students come from the local slums, one of them suddenly became homeless and couldn't complete the course!
- There was no way I could comply with the deadlines, my colleagues were going to eat me alive and the school director was going to be extremely disappointed. Three days before the internships were due to begin, I was a complete mess, I still had to organize three internships and couldn't find a solution for the homeless student.
God is, however, great and He never abandons His people. On thursday, there was a miraculous solution for the homeless student and two of the internships. On Friday morning, I contacted an insurance company that was able to complete a contract in less than one day! On Friday afternoon, a director from a company that I had contacted the day before phoned me and assured the last remaining internship and asked for a copy of the insurance contract (which had arrived early in the morning!).
On the following monday, all internships started on time and two months later all students completed the internships and the course with excellent grades, incl. the homeless kid!
An atheist would probably see here just a series of (extraordinary!) coincidences but what are the odds of that happening?! I never lost faith and I KNOW that God was always on my side and helped me.
By the way, the name of the lovely lady that was able to complete my insurance contract (I repeat, in less than one day!) was Susana Anjo, which literally means Susana Angel. It seems that God has a sense of humor!