Wednesday, September 2^nd, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
I’m inspired by the articles, posts, and blogs you suggest I read. There are too many suggestions with which to keep up. Here’s a blog from my pastor friend in Cincinnati, Kevin Murphy. 
 
Let’s remember to keep our teachers, administrators, staff, students, and families in our prayers. Tell me about some of your memorable teachers. I’ll print your responses in this space in the coming days.
 
* * *
 
 As schools have reopened this week, I’ve had the students, their teachers and staff in my prayers – mostly the teachers and staff. After all, the students will be there. They have little choice and many of them enjoy learning or at least they enjoy being with their friends. But for the most part, the teachers and staff are there because of a deep desire to work with young people. It is a job like few others. They are not paid particularly well and many times they use their own money to buy needed supplies because the school is underfunded. They spend hours outside the classroom preparing lessons, grading assignments, doing administrative tasks and meeting with students and parents. This year there is the added anxiety over staying safe and keeping the students safe from COVID-19. But the classroom time is why they do what they do. It’s there they come alive. Those who are really good at teaching find new and exciting ways to engage the curriculum and empower the students to learn. It’s amazing to watch a student blossom and come alive simply because a good teacher found the right angle to get through to her or him. I have to think of that kind of teacher is one who has discovered their gift, has honed their skill and employed that gift for the common good. 

Paul is pretty convinced that whenever we express a talent or skill for something, we do it well and we love doing it because of God’s Spirit moving in our lives. I have to agree with him on that. God gifts each and every one of us with unique skills and talents. Some excel in math and become great engineers. Some are great in biology and become nurses, therapists and doctors. Some are really good with their hands and become chefs, mechanics and carpenters. Some are gifted with artistic talents and may become great musicians, dancers or painters. Some possess the gift of nurturing and become super parents, teachers or caregivers. Whether or not someone uses their gifts to provide for their livelihood is not important. The sharing of those gifts for the common good is. Whatever our gift God is the giver of them all and the Spirit activates them in our lives. We are the happiest and most productive when our passion and our gifts meet the world’s great needs and we use those gifts for the common good. 

Teachers are at the heart of all this, coaxing, nurturing, instructing and helping students discover their gifts. Teachers are usually the first to recognize these gifts in their students and are the first to see them bloom. I am very thankful for the good teachers in my life and I am very thankful for all the good teachers in our community today. May God bless them as they use their gifts to be a blessing to their students.

News:
 
Sign up for our congregation/community-wide book study on “White Fragility” by emailing or calling Patty Farthing in the church office. 217.356.7238 /  Patty@firstpres.church

Humor (Hard times need godly laughter): 
 
These are jokes. Really.
 
Q: Why was the road nervous?  It was getting graded.
 
Q: Why did the dinosaur refuse to wear deodorant? It wasn’t interested in becoming x-stinked.

From Tanya Deckert…

 
 
 
Good Word:
First Corinthians 12:4-7                    
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 
 
Let us pray:
 
Bless our teachers, Holy God,
in the name of the Christ
who taught us how to pray,
live, and serve. 
 
Unswerving is your grace.
Help our students lean upon you.
Strengthen their resolve.
Guide their steps.
 
Grant us all humility and grace,
and, above all things,
love.
 
AMEN
 
Much, much love to you all.
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church