brushes with teaching

i've been taking a break from teaching in the last while. and yet, in the last couple of weeks, the following are the different sorts of brushes with teaching that i've had:

- getting to teaching a 2.5 hour seminar introducing the Old Testament prophets to young adults doing ministry locally [it was really great to be able to share my fascination and wonder of the prophets with others].

- having a former student (from the Calvin Interim class last January) stop by to see the community while he was in Amsterdam. i could see on his face that he recognized how special this community here is.

- having a former student (from my time teaching English as a second language in Ukraine 8 years ago) send me an email about whether i'd be willing to correspond with him to help his english. after telling him that i would, i haven't heard anything further but i am honoured that he still had my email and was willing to ask me after all this time.

- being given a helper for many of the last weeks of my community reception duties. and although i sometimes i find it a bit of an interruption to my own (sometimes haphazard) way of doing things, i have also been thankful to be able to share what i do know - not only with reception tasks but also my understanding of the community and those who come in to visit us.

- leading Bible study here in the community. and it's been enjoyable just to spend some low-key time looking at the Bible and faith and how this relates to our lives.

- spending lots of time talking with someone in the midst of teacher's college. it's great to get to share the discovery of how best to share information and the joy of helping others learn new things.

these brushes with teaching help me to recognize i can't (and actually don't even want to) completely remove teaching from my life. it's part of what i love to do - the love of sharing what i know and being able to walk with others as they learn. and i am once again starting to dream about teaching on a more official basis.