Julie, Heather and Angela came to us for the first time this year. These three display gifts and contain treasures many of us may not know about.
Julie Brown is the wife of Jason Brown, our Elementary Principal. Julie came to work at TDA this year, as their 7 wonderful children aged 6-18 enrolled in our school too!
Julie’s story: My role at TDA is Front Desk Administrator. I do anything the Principals need, maintain security with the comings and goings of parents and visitors, administrate the SOAR program, organize the books and the RenWeb calendar, answer parent, teacher and visitor questions and phone calls, keep the attendance, love on the JH and SH kiddos, and more.
This school year marked a new season for us and new seasons can be challenging. We would all appreciate continued prayer for the many ups and downs of our new season(s). I do LOVE that TDA allowed our whole family to be here (for school and work).
I also love getting to know the kids that are my kids’ friends, thereby seeing the transition of student to student relationship and student to teacher (administrator) relationship. I get to witness individuals first challenging but then learning to accept one another, being unfriendly at first but then learning to relate with kindness and growing in love. I am privileged to get to witness the beauty of this whole process.
Angela Ong teaches 5th Grade at TDA
Angela’s story also reflects how her general heart and vision identifies her as a mom among us.
When I was a teacher in public school, I was always trying to find ways to talk about Jesus, the Bible and the Biblical worldview without breaking any of the strict non-religious educational rules. I often gave my students another point of view other than the ones given in their textbook, especially when it came to history and science, teaching them another way of looking at things.
I love teaching in a Christian school. I love these kids because you can see the potential in them and you can see that they love the Lord and they are figuring out who they are in God, how their behavior is going to affect others and how are they supposed to express themselves. I love seeking to teach them what is the right and Biblical response for every emotion and communication. I think of them all as my children because I love children. I try and teach my own kids to live this way as well. These students are very much like siblings. I try not to punish, but try to help them to have compassion for each other and to understand how they would feel in the other person’s place.
Some really wonderful incidents that still touch me today are when I saw my students voluntarily go up during worship to offer praise and adoration to the Lord and another time to express thanksgiving for a person in their life. It’s also really moving to see when my students love and care for each other. For instance when someone doesn’t have a lunch, they may share part of their lunch with that person. Or when someone loses their TDA bucks through misplacement and it’s TDA buck store time, some of them will give some of their TDA bucks to that person.
Please pray that I’ll be able to be an instrument of God and teach them well academically, but more importantly teach and encourage them to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Heather Slocomb is our Grade 3 teacher, married to Albert and awaiting the birth of their second child. Their beloved firstborn son Benaniah age 13 months, is at home with dad and grandparents while mom teaches at TDA. Heather and Albert are expecting their second child in a few months time and we pray all the Lord’s goodness to shower upon them.
Heather says: “I wanted to teach in a school that valued our Christian faith, had a good curriculum and also freedom to teach in a variety of ways to meet student needs. I really liked the small class sizes, the feeling of family among staff, and the emphasis on prayer and worship throughout the school day.
It has been a joy getting to know each of the students and working to develop a positive learning environment. The students, their ideas and contributions to the classroom are what makes it fun to come to school every day.
My vision is to create a classroom environment where kids feel loved, safe, valued, and encouraged. A place where they can learn to love the Lord and each other, as well as growing a life-long love of learning.”
Please pray for Heather and Albert as they prepare for this next season of life with a new baby, Albert’s ongoing studies and for the Lord to unfold all He has for Heather.
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