Learning to Serve

True to its name, Doulos (translated as slave of Christ) dedicated the last three days of school to service projects. One of the goals of the school is to cultivate a joyful servant heart in its students. If we are trying to help students become leaders in Christ, we need to teach them to serve like Christ first. I was initially apprehensive to spend three solid days with my rowdy 7th and 8th graders on a service project, but my excitement for an opportunity to serve the community with my students grew as the week approached. After a heated and boisterous debate, my crew of middle school students decided to visit the local school for students with disabilities. Our project for the week was to paint the playground wall white and then help the students in the school paint their hand print and name on the wall.
A brief snapshot of the experience:
After pilling into a local taxi, the fearless 7/8th grade crew was off serve! Armed and dangerous with scrub brushes, brooms, and an assortment of buckets we were ready for day 1: cleaning mold, moss, and other green growths from the playground wall. An excited bunch of students welcomed us at the gate and proceeded to give us a tour of the school. Our first morning was filled with complaints from some, joyful song from others, and a stream of humor from my class clowns. By mid-morning our wall was somewhat clean and we spent the rest of the time playing with the disabled students in the school. I challenged my students to focus on befriending one student with disabilities and learning to love and understand them as another person, not just a kid with disabilities. Bouncing balls in all directions (at times dangerously close to the clean and wet wall), jump ropes, gleeful giggles, and other thrown objects filled the air.



The first day was a bit rocky, but after much prayer, patience and explaining, my students were carefully and joyfully playing with students with a wide range of abilities by the last day. The playground wall is now complete with a colorful array of handprints and my students have learned a little more about what it means to serve. I was overjoyed to see some of my rowdiest and most impatient boys carefully teaching some of the younger children with disabilities how to throw a ball and hugging them when it was time to leave.

It has been a challenging year, but I can already see fruits from Doulos’s steady focus on service, leadership, and experiential learning, all to impact the Dominican Republic for Christ. I am blessed to already be able to see my students changing. They are growing in their faith as well as becoming more patient, loving, and kind. I myself am learning more about the same things from my students and from the community I live in.