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Description
We welcome guest Amy-Jo Smith for a deep dive into the essence of teaching within the church and the broader community. Amy-Jo emphasizes the transformative role of a teacher as a nurturing guide who fosters a safe, inclusive environment where all voices, especially the quieter ones, are heard and valued. Amy-Jo illustrates the power of embodied learning and compassionate care for children with special needs. We delve into the importance of co-learning, observation, and creating a conducive space for growth, aligning with Jesus' own methods of teaching. This conversation is not only a tribute to the gift of teaching but also an insightful resource for those who aspire to serve others through education and understanding in their communities.
Time Stamps
[04:15] Teacher, mentor, and moments of care.
[07:30] Reflecting on teaching, creating a learning environment.
[11:36] Observation and listening in early childhood education.
[15:58] Prepared to guide, open to surprises, share.
[18:22] Churches should consider accommodating diverse needs.
[23:41] New educator teaches breathing techniques to challenging kids.
[24:43] Educator helps troubled child through love and care.
[30:34] Jonny and Friends organization serving families with special needs.
Links
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Mentioned in this episode:
Skip The Dinner-Double Your Impact
Skip The Dinner is CareImpact’s year-end Christmas campaign, a fundraising non-event. You keep your time, and you give from wherever you are. Right now, every year-end gift or pledge is DOUBLED by a generous donor, so your giving goes twice as far to help strengthen CareImpact’s work with churches and community partners across Canada. Each donation will be matched before January 1, 2026.
Transcripts
The environment is a third teacher. I'm not the only one in
Speaker:the room that is bringing the learning. So
Speaker:how we set up the environment really matters, and how can we create an environment
Speaker:that really draws out the learning of the students.
Speaker:What does loving your neighbor actually look like?
Speaker:This is Journey with Care, where curious Canadians get inspired
Speaker:to love others well through real life stories and honest
Speaker:conversations.
Speaker:Hey, curious Sojourner. We're continuing along in our series Leading
Speaker:Differently Together, and I'm so glad you're on this journey with me as we're meeting
Speaker:up with some pretty fascinating people across Canada. They're living in their
Speaker:sweet spots and really making an impact. Ephesians 411 to
Speaker:12 says, God gives some to be apostles,
Speaker:prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip the
Speaker:saints for the work of ministry and for building up the body of
Speaker:Christ. But I wonder what does that actually look like in Canada?
Speaker:Well, you're gonna have to listen to find out because today, we're gonna get curious
Speaker:about teaching. I'm your host, Wendi Park, joined by producer,
Speaker:Johan Hinrichs. And in studio today, we have a very special guest who
Speaker:is a teacher to the core. She loves working with children and families
Speaker:with special needs and has done so around the world. Now coming to
Speaker:us from the unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin Territory, Ottawa,
Speaker:Ontario. Amy-Jo Smith, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker:Thank you, Wendi. It's so wonderful to be with you.
Speaker:Yes. I love working with you, Amy-Jo. It should be said
Speaker:that you are part of the CareImpact team all the way from
Speaker:Ottawa, but not everybody knows you. So I would love for you
Speaker:to tell us a little bit about yourself. Take us on a quick journey of
Speaker:your personal story. Well, you know
Speaker:me as one of the CareImpact trauma care trainers,
Speaker:and it is such a fun thing to be part of the team
Speaker:across Canada. But I have been in the early childhood
Speaker:education field for almost 20 years.
Speaker:And I have had the privilege I always say my greatest
Speaker:teachers and my professors have been the children that I have
Speaker:gotten to walk alongside and journey with. And
Speaker:that has been in classrooms in Ottawa where I
Speaker:currently live, where I started as an early childhood educator.
Speaker:It's also been in the homes of families as a nanny, in
Speaker:children's ministry classrooms, as a Sunday school teacher
Speaker:in Peru, in the Dominican, in Ecuador,
Speaker:and a few other places where I've gotten to journey with
Speaker:children and families through camps and different children's
Speaker:homes. And all of these opportunities and experiences have taught me
Speaker:so much about the way we learn from each other. I
Speaker:love that. Yes. You have a diverse background
Speaker:in teaching. And I'm just curious, can you trace that
Speaker:back to maybe when you were a child, or how far can you
Speaker:trace that back when you started to love teaching? How did you fall into
Speaker:that? Well, I love that you asked that because I've been
Speaker:reflecting on a quote, by mister Rogers. And
Speaker:I have a friend who Love mister Rogers. And
Speaker:she just wrote a book all about his life because it he's impacted her so
Speaker:much in her teaching. And there was a quote that he said she
Speaker:shared with me and it's just stuck with me. And it said he said, who
Speaker:loved you into being? And in the work that I
Speaker:do in caring for and teaching children
Speaker:and now seeking to equip and care for adults and the work
Speaker:that I do as a resource consultant, trying to build capacity to
Speaker:support educators and having spaces that they
Speaker:can invite children with special needs into. I know that there are so
Speaker:many people and so many experiences that I am who I
Speaker:am today in the work that I do. And so when I think about who
Speaker:loved me into being, the moments where
Speaker:I really learned in a moment of teaching, they were
Speaker:often the moments that were not necessarily in a classroom within 4
Speaker:walls. I think of my grandma. She comes to mind,
Speaker:first of all, as someone who walked with me, and she was also
Speaker:a teacher, both in her profession and and in
Speaker:her life, in her vocation as a as a grandma and as
Speaker:a mom. And a picture comes to mind where I was in her
Speaker:backyard and she always let us help her in the garden. And she
Speaker:taught me how to dig out the hole to put the potato in, and she
Speaker:always said, you need to give it a good soaking. And there were
Speaker:those moments in my life when I was taught,
Speaker:by teachers that were not necessarily within a classroom within 4 walls.
Speaker:Another moment I remember was when I had to have surgery when I
Speaker:was about 5 years old, and I was in the hospital for
Speaker:over a week and my Sunday school teacher signed a big
Speaker:card. She had all my, my classmates sign the
Speaker:card and decorated it and brought it to me. And that was a moment
Speaker:where I learned about love and care. Wow. I really love
Speaker:that. It's so it's not so much on the transaction of
Speaker:content is what I'm hearing from you. But the going
Speaker:alongside teaching and doing, demonstrating, coming alongside,
Speaker:really demonstrating what it was that you didn't even
Speaker:maybe know that potatoes needed to be soaked, that it was something to learn. But
Speaker:as you walked along your grandma in that garden, as
Speaker:you received that compassion from your teacher, she was teaching you
Speaker:far more than a phonograph Jesus on a on a board about
Speaker:compassion. And that's very Jesus y, isn't it? He he walked
Speaker:along, and and he was a good teacher. He or he is a good teacher
Speaker:and, demonstrated that in a very practical
Speaker:ways. Well, I was thinking of that, Wendi, in
Speaker:just thinking of the life of Jesus and how he taught as
Speaker:he walked. And he taught through physical
Speaker:things like water and bread and fish
Speaker:and trees, and he taught through his life as he
Speaker:walked. That's right. So I remember
Speaker:a conversation we had when I originally asked you, hey, Micho, I
Speaker:am doing this series, and I'd really love to interview
Speaker:you on your take on teaching regarding the the
Speaker:Ephesians 4 gifting. And I remember that conversation
Speaker:distinctly saying, well, do I qualify enough as a teacher? I'm not
Speaker:necessarily a pastoral teacher in the church or in in
Speaker:the typical way right now. I'm not teaching a Sunday school class. Do you
Speaker:remember that conversation? And just digging in together, what does it
Speaker:mean to be gifted in teaching?
Speaker:Do you recall that conversation? I do recall that
Speaker:conversation. And and I remember that
Speaker:unlike Amy-Jo, you have a gift of teaching. You
Speaker:you teach in our trauma care class. I'd love for you to tell us a
Speaker:little bit more about the master class that you're currently part of
Speaker:the team in teaching, But maybe we can dive
Speaker:into a little bit about the biblical foundation that you and I were
Speaker:exploring when we were thinking through the, verse
Speaker:in in Ephesians 4 11 and 12, what
Speaker:does it mean to have the gift of teaching? Do you have any
Speaker:reflections on that since we last had that conversation?
Speaker:I do. And I I I appreciated you asking that question because I
Speaker:I think it it got my thoughts going back to what is what is
Speaker:teaching. And the word, is to
Speaker:train and to teach, and the word, which is to draw out. And
Speaker:those are both the root words of education. And so I've been thinking a
Speaker:lot about that. And my brother, who is also part of our trauma care team,
Speaker:he was talking about that after our last session just on Tuesday,
Speaker:where we were talking about how do we create a learning environment where we're
Speaker:not just giving information even though that is part of we do
Speaker:have information we want to share and and facts and
Speaker:statistics and different things that we want the students to
Speaker:come away with. But so much of the learning that we're trying to create
Speaker:is an environment where the students are able to
Speaker:access some of what they already know or go on a journey of
Speaker:discovery on their own. And so I've been thinking a lot about
Speaker:how teaching is so much about that creating.
Speaker:And in my work as an early childhood educator,
Speaker:it's actually something that we talk about all the time is that we're
Speaker:co creating a learning environment. We're setting out invitations
Speaker:for the children, and then we're being surprised by what they do with
Speaker:the invitations. So we're learning alongside with them.
Speaker:And it's actually we we have a saying in early childhood
Speaker:education that the environment is a 3rd teacher. I'm
Speaker:not the only one in the room that is bringing the learning.
Speaker:So how we set up the environment really matters, and my brother Tim was
Speaker:just reminding us how how can we create an environment that
Speaker:really draws out the learning of the students? Right.
Speaker:So I'm not a natural gifted teacher, I would say. I may be a
Speaker:natural gifted student. I love to learn. I'm always curious.
Speaker:Can you walk me through that? What does it mean to be co
Speaker:learning? What does the child have to teach you? What does the environment
Speaker:have to teach you? And how are you navigating that? Can you
Speaker:walk me through an example? Yeah. Well, in
Speaker:early childhood education, it's a lot to do with materials and things that we
Speaker:put out. So for example, we had a class that
Speaker:was really interested in building marble runs. They were building
Speaker:ramps and testing how fast the marbles could go. So we thought, oh, we'll put
Speaker:out some cardboard and see if they wanna build their own marble runs and then
Speaker:they can use a different material. But we put out the cardboard
Speaker:and guess what they did? They didn't wanna build a marble run. They wanted to
Speaker:build instruments and they wanted to build journals. And it turned
Speaker:into this really beautiful creative activity for weeks weeks
Speaker:that they were very invested in. And we just had to
Speaker:kind of follow them along that journey and teach them how to
Speaker:different kinds of attachments for then for their instruments and
Speaker:put up materials where we could build on their their interest. And
Speaker:so that's the exciting part for me is just kind of
Speaker:teaching alongside, creating an environment, and then watching where
Speaker:the learning will go. Yeah. And I I love that because
Speaker:often we think education is maybe something for the
Speaker:learner, those that don't squirm in their seats, those that sit still and and
Speaker:just pay attention to whoever's at the at the pulpit,
Speaker:whoever's at the front of the classroom with authority. But what you're
Speaker:telling me is a much more humble approach bending down at their level
Speaker:and learning with them and being curious about how
Speaker:they're learning, and that is something we could take into the church. I'm curious
Speaker:to see from a early childhood educator's perspective as
Speaker:you are very committed to the church and and navigating
Speaker:that church life experience. Are there some things that we should be paying
Speaker:attention to, listening to, leaning into our educators
Speaker:in the pews in leadership that would make a co
Speaker:learning experience so that we could learn to grow closer to each
Speaker:other, learn to grow closer to God and to to
Speaker:community? Are there things that maybe that you see
Speaker:that we're bypassing in everyday church
Speaker:experiences? So one thing that I've
Speaker:found really interesting in my work as an early childhood educator is
Speaker:we have to do so many observations. So I'm not at the
Speaker:front of the room in a kindergarten class just giving information.
Speaker:Although there are times when I gather the children in a circle and, and I
Speaker:share information with them. But so much of the time I'm walking around and
Speaker:I'm recording, whether it's even just in my mind or whether it's on a piece
Speaker:of paper or with a video, I'm recording what's happening in the learning so
Speaker:that I can come back to it and I can look at where we should
Speaker:take the learning next, and I can pull out things that I'm seeing.
Speaker:And I think it's taught me so much about observation and
Speaker:listening. Because so much of the job is observing
Speaker:and looking a little deeper and saying, what could be going on
Speaker:here? And listening and listening even deeper
Speaker:for what the child might be already learning and already accessing so that I can
Speaker:add another layer. And I think in the church and in our
Speaker:communities, it makes me think, what if we listen longer?
Speaker:What if we observed more to know what other
Speaker:people are thinking? And maybe it's the the kids in the back row or the
Speaker:people in the back row that that aren't even getting a a place to have
Speaker:their voice heard. And I need to step closer to
Speaker:them and listen longer so that I can hear what they have to say.
Speaker:So it's a sense of letting the children come and don't
Speaker:hinder them. I I think Jesus had a strong word with those
Speaker:adults that were adulting doing serious church under the tree, I imagine.
Speaker:It may not be under a tree, but he's let the children come. And though
Speaker:those were teaching moments, they were colearning together in those
Speaker:times, weren't they? And, also, what I hear you telling me is that it's
Speaker:not just somebody with just good communication skills in,
Speaker:like, verbal oratory excellence, that they're
Speaker:just, like, downloading, like, a fire hose of information.
Speaker:There's something reciprocal that's happening when there's
Speaker:teaching going on. I learned from you, you learned from me,
Speaker:and together, it's like this dance back and forth and
Speaker:can arrive to new conclusions or arrive to deeper
Speaker:understanding, not only in the content, but what I'm hearing you say is
Speaker:in each other, understanding each other, which can often
Speaker:be overlooked as we are in pursuit of doctrine, as we're
Speaker:in pursuit of right thinking and godly principles and
Speaker:bible verses and a lot of good things, but we miss
Speaker:hearing each other colearning together in those moments.
Speaker:And and I think, yeah, Amy-Jo, you have a lot to teach us. I think
Speaker:that's beautiful. I'm being taught. Well, I I love that word you used,
Speaker:Wendi, reciprocity, because I think that describes so
Speaker:much of what, we're talking about in that learning. And
Speaker:and when I come in with a humble and an open heart and a and
Speaker:a one a wonder, so much of what we do in early
Speaker:childhood education is a wondering. And I actually had a
Speaker:wonder wall on my wall where we we put our questions,
Speaker:and I put my questions because there's things that I didn't know. And the
Speaker:children would ask questions and sometimes we didn't know the answer. So we'd put it
Speaker:up and we'd wonder together and we'd go deeper into the whether it was
Speaker:wondering where the puddles went in the spring. And one of the children said, I
Speaker:think they get sucked up into the sky. And, actually, that's pretty much
Speaker:what does happen. Yeah. So then we go and learn about evaporation,
Speaker:but there was just so much in that process that was a dance of
Speaker:listening and learning together. And I wonder with what
Speaker:you just told me now is that if there's people listening that
Speaker:have or are curious if they have the gift of teaching or they clearly
Speaker:do, I wonder if that eases the burden of
Speaker:having to be the know it all just because you're the teacher that you have
Speaker:to have all the answers. And sometimes we shoot ourselves in
Speaker:the foot by trying to pretend or or put the pressure
Speaker:on that we have to know everything rather than be curious together
Speaker:and to discover together. I do sense this new
Speaker:generation up and rising. They wanna ask questions. They want to wonder.
Speaker:Mhmm. They wanna be curious and and know. And rather than being
Speaker:threatened as a teacher, I hear you saying, hey. Let me wonder with you,
Speaker:and maybe be that guide on that pathway. Still further
Speaker:ahead, you do have knowledge. It's not like you're anything goes,
Speaker:but you're just a few steps ahead but wondering with them.
Speaker:I love that, and I think of it as a guide that's taking us on
Speaker:a trip. And, you know, we're we're going into the mountains, and so I come
Speaker:prepared with my map and with my idea of where we're going, and I have
Speaker:my backpack and I have my preparations for the things that
Speaker:could happen just in case, but I'm prepared to be surprised along the
Speaker:way and to maybe take a detour and find a
Speaker:beautiful scene that I didn't expect to see. But I do have a
Speaker:direction that I'm going. And I think, like you're saying, some
Speaker:people may not realize that they do have something that really
Speaker:is something that other people need and some dots
Speaker:that can help them connect. And so when we come in with
Speaker:that idea, I do have something that I wanna share. We don't
Speaker:have to have all the answers, but we can be a guide on the journey
Speaker:for others. In your current work in Ottawa as
Speaker:a consultant, with the education system there
Speaker:for families with special needs, you've also volunteered and
Speaker:done a lot of work with Joni and Friends. We haven't talked about that
Speaker:yet. But working with children with differences,
Speaker:can you tell me what that teaching experience has taught you
Speaker:through those experiences? Well, I was thinking about
Speaker:this and reflecting on your question of, you
Speaker:know, who are the people that have really taught me over the years
Speaker:and influenced me. And I remember my friend, Jill,
Speaker:invited me to my first family camp for families
Speaker:of children with special needs. And I learned so much from
Speaker:watching her and watching others journey alongside these
Speaker:families and children and laugh with them
Speaker:and swim with them and just celebrate their abilities. There's
Speaker:a talent show night. And every year, I
Speaker:think for about 10 years, I had the privilege of journeying with
Speaker:families at these camps. And every year, there's just so much ability and so
Speaker:much to celebrate. And I think watching
Speaker:others interact taught me so much about
Speaker:how we need all these parts of the body. We need all these parts
Speaker:of the body to be included. And when we make a
Speaker:little space and we push over, whether it's a physical
Speaker:space for a wheelchair to come in or whether it's, you
Speaker:know, some sensory supports for children that are struggling with noise and
Speaker:with sensory input. When we make space, we're so much richer as a
Speaker:community. And I've had some conversations in in some churches. Well,
Speaker:we don't really deal with those kind of things in in the greatest sense.
Speaker:But then I I have to wonder too, if we're not dealing with differences,
Speaker:are we excluding them without even knowing? Are we creating those
Speaker:wheelchair ramps? But not always even in the physical sense. Sometimes
Speaker:the invisible things when we have children or adults with neuro
Speaker:differences, are there sensory spaces? Are there quiet spaces? Are
Speaker:we mindful? And I think that's a lot of pressure
Speaker:possibly on on a church to get it all right, but it's
Speaker:really not that. From what I'm learning from you is just pay attention,
Speaker:to listen, to get to know the individual because each
Speaker:person comes with invisible or visible
Speaker:needs that could be accommodated if we would just simply
Speaker:let them teach us what it is they need to thrive and to
Speaker:flourish because everyone is designed for community, but
Speaker:how do we make that happen? I imagine that's a bit of your
Speaker:work in the school system with families as they're trying to navigate
Speaker:regular school with neuro differences and and special needs.
Speaker:Can you share some insights that might be helpful for
Speaker:churches who are also wanting to be accommodating and
Speaker:create some universal design so that everybody is welcome.
Speaker:Yeah. I love what you said about letting them teach
Speaker:you. And I think that is the phrase that stuck out to
Speaker:me because so much of the work that I do, and I work currently with
Speaker:early childhood educators, so preschool and helping the
Speaker:children transition into the school system and prepare them for
Speaker:kindergarten. And so much of what we do is we talk about,
Speaker:again, coming back to that observation and that questioning
Speaker:and wondering, and not just coming to an assumption that this behaviour is
Speaker:because they don't want to be a part of the group or they
Speaker:don't want to listen. So much of it is also in what we teach in
Speaker:our trauma care class, right, is that coming back to
Speaker:curiosity and wanting to stay connected
Speaker:in those moments of wondering what's going on, what what's a layer deeper? We talk
Speaker:about the iceberg in our trauma care classes so often about
Speaker:what we see is just the tip, and there's so much underneath.
Speaker:So what we see may be a behavior that
Speaker:we are curious about. We don't understand it or
Speaker:we're frustrated about if we're honest. But in the
Speaker:trauma care master class, you have been teaching people how,
Speaker:in the churches, how to look beyond the behavior. What is
Speaker:the need underlying that? Right? And what are some of those
Speaker:discoveries being found? You're you're currently teaching. Maybe you can go into a
Speaker:little bit about the master class, why we are teaching that
Speaker:in into churches and ministry leaders. What are some of the
Speaker:things that they're discovering as they get curious behind
Speaker:the behavior? Yeah. And and like you said, Wendi, those
Speaker:behaviors, they're not easy. And the classes and the
Speaker:participants that come together as we journey through our trauma
Speaker:care learning, we're very honest about the challenges
Speaker:that these things are not easy and they're not necessarily
Speaker:straightforward. And part of the gift we give these children
Speaker:and individuals that come into our communities is that gift
Speaker:of patience and curiosity and willingness to ask
Speaker:those deeper questions. And we're we're hearing things from the participants
Speaker:who say they wish they'd known this earlier. You know, it's a foster mom
Speaker:who has been fostering for 10 years. And she says,
Speaker:oh, this is just so good. I wish that I'd known this 10 years ago.
Speaker:But we always say in our course, when you know better, you can do better.
Speaker:That's right. And it's not going back, but we can go forward, and we can
Speaker:go forward with more compassion and curiosity. And and really the heart
Speaker:of all of this, which I get to talk about daily in my job and
Speaker:it just brings me joy. It's talking about connection.
Speaker:We're built for connection, and we're longing for
Speaker:connection. And so much of this is just how do we stay connected through
Speaker:the challenges and work to rebuild connection when it's broken.
Speaker:That's really beautiful. Because sometimes when we think let the children come and
Speaker:don't hinder them, it's like putting a do not enter sign on the church
Speaker:or in our our kids' program or ministry or whatnot
Speaker:or that person that's difficult has a difficult behavior we're not sure what to
Speaker:do with. We're thinking it's just a blatant like, you can't come
Speaker:in. But, actually, what you're telling me is is sometimes
Speaker:we we give messages. We send messages that you do not belong
Speaker:if you can't fit in these things. So so hindering can
Speaker:be not looking behind the behavior. Hindering can
Speaker:not being aware, but you're right. When we know better, we do better.
Speaker:And I I love the passion that you and and the other
Speaker:associates on our team bring into these settings as
Speaker:people are just like these light bulb moments saying, oh my goodness. I
Speaker:can't wait to get back into that setting or back with my child or
Speaker:back into the church and pursue those connections. Can you
Speaker:give me an example, sort of a before and after example,
Speaker:of when you were able to connect with a child or an adult
Speaker:and what that difference was in your relationship and even in
Speaker:your teaching ability with this the student?
Speaker:Well, one of the first thing that comes to mind is is an
Speaker:educator that I was just talking to this week. And she's fairly
Speaker:new to the profession, fairly new to her job, and she's been working with
Speaker:some really, really challenging kids. And
Speaker:she just soaks in everything that we
Speaker:talk about. And I come back a week later, we were talking about breathing techniques
Speaker:because some of our children are really struggling with regulating.
Speaker:And some of them come from really difficult home situations where they're
Speaker:not getting that practice. And so we talk about this also in our trauma
Speaker:care course, you know, about helping to regulate the
Speaker:vagus nerve in the brain that helps calm the body. And
Speaker:so I taught her the roller coaster breathing, where you go up and down the
Speaker:fingers. And I came back a couple of weeks later and she has
Speaker:the whole group of kids coming in from outside, sitting on the carpet,
Speaker:these kindergarten kids, and they're all practicing the
Speaker:breathing and coming up with their own on their own their own
Speaker:creative ideas. And so I watched this educator who's the other day,
Speaker:she said, Amy-Jo, I just learn so much from you every time you come.
Speaker:And really, it's her willingness to I send videos
Speaker:and links to some of the trauma care information, and she watches them and
Speaker:she takes ideas. And there's a little girl who is in
Speaker:her care who comes from a very difficult home situation.
Speaker:And she came in really through all of her behavior asking that
Speaker:question, am I wanted? Am I cared for? Am I
Speaker:loved? And, you know, we talk about the Karen Purvis quote.
Speaker:She was someone who worked with children from hard places
Speaker:and has done a lot of beautiful research on healing for children who have
Speaker:gone through trauma. And she talks about
Speaker:sometimes the children that need the most love ask for it in the most unloving
Speaker:ways. And so this little girl is having a lot of really
Speaker:challenging behavior. And those educators
Speaker:have told her over and over again, you're wanted here, you're loved,
Speaker:you're cared for by their presence
Speaker:and their words. Even though other programs, I think, would have
Speaker:told her, you're not welcome here. You can't come back because of her challenges, but
Speaker:they've been willing to stick with it. And she has
Speaker:beautiful moments now of connection. And even she's able to access
Speaker:some of her sadness, which is actually a really good thing. She's able to cry
Speaker:instead of just lash out. And so that's where I I saw a dance
Speaker:between an educator who's curious and willing to learn and a child
Speaker:who is being connected with, and it just brought me a lot of
Speaker:joy. Yeah. That's really beautiful. Earlier, I referring to
Speaker:Ephesians 411 to 12, where we we know the
Speaker:apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, and, obviously, we're
Speaker:focusing on the teachers, are there to equip the
Speaker:saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of
Speaker:Christ. I'm just curious the intersection of somebody
Speaker:like yourself who has an innate God calling of teaching.
Speaker:You can't stop but reciprocate that with others and and
Speaker:co learn together. But what is it that we could learn as a body of
Speaker:Christ to do better together with the other callings and
Speaker:and leadership styles? What is it that we could do to
Speaker:work better together and to really make
Speaker:the most with those in the church who have the gift of
Speaker:teaching? Well, I think because I'm
Speaker:just always looking through that lens of time with my little people, I
Speaker:think of a circle time in kindergarten. And there are some
Speaker:voices who are really, really ready to just take over the whole
Speaker:circle, and they're very forefront and they need
Speaker:space. They do need space to talk. But I think of so much of it
Speaker:is a dance of trying to bring out the ones who are quiet and the
Speaker:ones who are maybe not as willing to share, but have really good things to
Speaker:say. And I think maybe some of
Speaker:this journey as a community, as a church community, is how do we
Speaker:make space for the voices that may be more in the back row
Speaker:or the ones that may not be as vocal? How
Speaker:do we really pause and make space for them? Because we have so much to
Speaker:learn from each other. And I would imagine
Speaker:someone with the gift of teaching like yourself who is maturing in their
Speaker:giftings and utilizing that as they grow, they're probably the
Speaker:ones that I would wanna lean into to really be
Speaker:able to be good observers of the environment in creating
Speaker:safe and conducive spaces for learning, not just in in the
Speaker:construction of of the 4 walls, but in the environment to health
Speaker:felt safety so that people can reciprocate so they feel,
Speaker:like, welcoming to to share their voice that their voice matters.
Speaker:I would tend to want to lean into their
Speaker:giftings to create that atmosphere. And I've
Speaker:learned so much from others too, Wendi. And just even this Tuesday in our
Speaker:teaching session we were debriefing after on, a lot of it is
Speaker:is how do we even as adults, we need safe places. And sometimes
Speaker:we have things that the students share, you know, we're talking about
Speaker:the children that we work with, but it brings up some of their own journey
Speaker:and their own story, and there needs to be space for that to be held.
Speaker:And as we're creating that space together, it's coming in with an
Speaker:intention for it to be a place where we can we can share and we
Speaker:can trust each other with our stories. Yeah. And
Speaker:so teaching isn't so much of a, I'm the teacher, so,
Speaker:therefore, I have authority in the room or in this dynamic of the
Speaker:relationship. It's almost like a earned secured
Speaker:authority of a voice that somebody would want to come to for
Speaker:learning together. I think of in the the
Speaker:Bible, in the New Testament, Lois and Eunice
Speaker:taught Timothy, and it wasn't like in a lording over it, but they were
Speaker:nurturing. They were creating space. This little young Timothy who
Speaker:had so much promise, they were just
Speaker:encouraging him along. I I think of Priscilla who taught
Speaker:Apollos and and Phoebe. She was a deacon in the church, all
Speaker:female teachers that we may think sometimes, well, the the
Speaker:teachers maybe have to be males in front of the church, and I'm not gonna
Speaker:get into that whole male female thing. But it it's so less of
Speaker:an authoritative thing as a a nurturing, a
Speaker:co learning, a helping other people to grow,
Speaker:which there's a lot of room at that table. Don't we all need
Speaker:teachers? Don't we all need Lois and Eunice's around us
Speaker:to see those gifts and abilities to co learn with us? And I'm
Speaker:just grateful that you're one of those in my life. I learned things from you
Speaker:when you're teaching trauma care or when we're interacting. You're
Speaker:not the one speaking up all the time. That would probably be me. I have
Speaker:to hold myself back. However, you help
Speaker:create that environment even in our team, which I'm really grateful for.
Speaker:Well, it makes me think, Wendi, as you're listing these
Speaker:people, and I I think of the verse that came to me when I was
Speaker:doing some Jonny and Friends work. And Jonny and Friends is a
Speaker:organization that serves families with special needs around the world, you mentioned earlier.
Speaker:And I was a part of mentoring some of the interns who
Speaker:were coming as college students, and, really, it was a very
Speaker:shaping time for them. And it was the verse in Thessalonians that
Speaker:talks about, we loved you so much that we shared not only the gospel,
Speaker:people because it was a very embodied experience. There
Speaker:was not a lot of time at the front of the room. We were walking
Speaker:alongside families, and Joni is
Speaker:herself a quadriplegic and experiences life
Speaker:in a wheelchair. And she talks so much about the embodied experience
Speaker:of working with people where we have to get on the floor with
Speaker:them. We have to incarnate into their worlds just as
Speaker:Jesus came into our world in a body. And the things that we learned
Speaker:through that experience in reciprocal, mutual
Speaker:benefit. That's beautiful. Now to wrap things up, I'm
Speaker:wondering, Amy-Jo, if you have any words of wisdom or
Speaker:maybe that next step, that baby step for us to grow as
Speaker:teachers if we have the gifting. And and those are we maybe don't, but we
Speaker:could still learn and grow into that. Are there any next steps that
Speaker:you might wanna encourage us to to try? Well, I
Speaker:think one thing that was sitting with me as I was reflecting
Speaker:was words from a Quaker,
Speaker:teacher. His name was Parker Palmer, and he talks so much about
Speaker:the teaching journey is really one of going within
Speaker:and getting to know ourselves better as we get to know our
Speaker:students. And so I would just say I would encourage
Speaker:some reflection time, Maybe even think on that question that
Speaker:we talked about. Who loved you into being? Who were some teachers in your
Speaker:life that were really impactful in those moments? Maybe not at 3 o'clock on
Speaker:a Wednesday afternoon in your grade 3 classroom when you
Speaker:were learning math, but what were some of those moments of teaching that have
Speaker:impacted you? And then what are some things that you really want to
Speaker:share with others? And how can you start listening to the ones
Speaker:that may really benefit from that information and from that knowledge
Speaker:and passion that you have. Well, I love that. And Johan
Speaker:Heinrichs, our producer, will be helping us all with that.
Speaker:On Mondays, we have a journey with prayer, which is a contemplative
Speaker:experience, a 5 minute contemplative experience based on the episodes
Speaker:of the Friday previous. So stay tuned this coming
Speaker:Monday for a contemplative experience where you can journey within
Speaker:and with God. And, Amy-Jo, I just wanna thank you so much for taking
Speaker:the time to share with us your story, and thank you for coming on
Speaker:the podcast. Thank you so much, Wendi. It's been a
Speaker:joy to be here with you. Thank you for
Speaker:joining another conversation on Journey with Care, where we
Speaker:inspire curious Canadians on their path of faith and living
Speaker:life with purpose in community. Journey with Care is an initiative of
Speaker:CareImpact, a Canadian charity dedicated to connecting and
Speaker:equipping the whole church to journey well in community. You can
Speaker:visit their website at careimpact.ca or visit
Speaker:journeywithcare.ca to get more information on weekly episodes,
Speaker:Journey with Prayer, and details about our upcoming events and meetups.
Speaker:You can also leave us a message, share your thoughts, and connect with like
Speaker:minded individuals who are on their own journeys of faith and
Speaker:purpose. Thank you for sharing this podcast and helping these stories
Speaker:reach the community. Together, we can explore ways to journey in a good
Speaker:way. And always remember to stay curious.
