My face flushed.
When I saw the state of my child’s school workbooks, my heart raced. In spite of all my denial, I was, in fact, the typical Asian tiger mum.
I found myself at the principal’s office, nervous, certain I had ruined my own children’s futures by stepping out of the strictly manicured curriculum of the Singapore education system.
But days later, God met me. I met one of my girls’ form teachers— nothing prepared me for her introduction.
“I was 12 when my mum died. My dad and siblings were gone too. When a missionary, saw my hopelessness at the funeral, she hugged me. I broke down. She brought me home, loved me, and then adopted me when none of my relatives wanted me. When she hugged me, I realized in that moment that’s what I want to do for other children— to love them. That’s why I’m teaching here.”
I held back tears— while I had tight reins over my kids’ curricula back home, I had far less here. Yet, God in His goodness, handpicked shepherds like her for our girls, teachers I’d never otherwise find myself, not in a million years.
I was reminded, that weeks ago, my 5-year old said she dreamt her school was on fire, and this very teacher put the fire out to save her.
I felt the Lord ask me gently—will you trust Me? Are you willing to lose control? Would you trust that I have an even better curricula and future for your girls than you could possibly curate yourself?
As the teacher assured me that the unmarked parts of the workbook were due to them going over the answers in class, and explained the school philosophy of encouraging a love for learning instead of nitpicking at every error, I felt God hold me, inviting me to surrender my manicured vision of success, cast by my own past, to Him.
I saw— that perhaps, God had to bring me all the way to Tanzania to wrest control from my hands, to see that my heart for them to become inspiring women of impact would depend less on my old world’s rigidly held beliefs in academia, and more on being immersed in the colorful reality that our lives are in Tanzania, marked by coming face-to-face with inspiring missionaries and local African role models alike.
“Thank you for loving my child.”
