Dorothy* had not been teaching long at the school in Zambia when her husband died. She spun into depression and loneliness, feeling like she was all alone in the world.
“It was on August 16, 2025, when I thought my life had ended,” she shared. “This is when I lost my dear husband. It was so heavy for me to accept because he was no more in my life. I thought, ‘who is going to take care of me and my children?’ I was asking God so many questions.”
She continued to go to school and teach the children, even running devotions and prayers with them, but it was all done automatically.
Then, a month after her husband died, she received a call from the school coordinator asking her to go and attend a conference which was being run by Education In Africa (EIA), an OM ministry, in another town. She would be travelling with a group of teacher trainers who had been helping to run training at her school. At first, she didn’t want to go, but eventually she agreed. She didn’t know that God had something special for her at the conference.
“The day came when we travelled to the conference,” she said. “The facilitators started unpacking what they came to teach us. It was at that moment when I realised that God is my comforter and the bread of life; that He was with me – had always been with me. I realised that the same God that I was sharing with my learners was the same God who was taking care of me now, even as I mourned. I thank God that I attended the conference because it changed the way I see things.
“So, I want to now pray for direction and persistence like in Acts 12:5 (“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him” (NIV)). These are the things we are missing out on as Christian teachers. Mostly, we just focus on the academics and the grades the students are getting, but we forget that each student is an individual we are called to love and bring out the best in.
“But more than that. The love that we share with the children is a love that is there for us in our difficult times too. God has become more real to me in this time.”
* name changed
