Arise, my people! Let your light shine for all the nations to see!

For the
glory of the Lord is streaming from you. (Isaiah 60:1) LB
Courage to Arise and Shine
At the age of fourteen, shortly after making a commitment to Jesus Christ,
Virginia Kingston heard a foreign missionary speak at her church. As he spoke, the
Lord birthed a dream in Virginias heart that she too would one day work in the
foreign mission field. Within a challenging blended family Virginia made her way
through junior high and high school. She attended a small Christian college where she
majored in English and PE. Inquiring into the mission field at that time, she
discovered that single females were not being accepted for foreign mission work
unless they had nursing degrees.
Virginia spent the next thirteen yeas of her life personally, professionally, and spiritually maturing while
working at four different private Christian schools. During this time she earned her masters degree in education while
teaching and coaching all grade levels from 5th to 12th grade. Finally, at a teachers conference in 1984, twenty one
years after the birth of her dream, Virginia discovered a mission society looking for American English teachers to send
to China. Recalling this time in her life Virginia states, The Lord used the twenty- one years of spiritual, personal and
professional maturing through many different trials and experiences to prepare me for the foreign mission field. I
would not have survived in China if I would have gone there straight out of college. Virginia sold almost all of what
she owned, gave away her old car, and set out on the adventure of a lifetime, moving into one of the most religiously
repressive communist nations of the modern world. After being in China for two months she knew she had been
transplanted right where God wanted her, where she could work for Him.
Twenty-five years later, Virginia has served in three different public Chinese universities. God has given her
immense favor with the students and her administrators. She not only teaches English but several American culture
studies including a course, The Bible as Literature, which she proposed to her director several years ago. She holds a
low key Bible study class for students on Sunday evenings. She has loaned hundreds of Bibles to students during her
many years of service. (It is against the law to give them away.) Some of the students she serves have made life
transforming decisions to follow and serve Jesus Christ because of her quiet unassuming witness.
In addition to her work overseas, Virginia has also become a foundation stone of the Christian Educators
Association International network in the Houston area. Every summer Virginia returns from China for several months.
During these months she is actively collecting books from the local used book stores to send to different ministries in
Southeast Asia. Through her sponsoring churches, she has collected hundreds of shoes to send to Honduras so the
children there can attend public schools. She has purchased and collected backpacks and school supplies for students
which were donated to Common Threads, an organization serving the clothing and school supply needs of students in
poverty. Virginia is also an advisor for this group and has written devotions for publication.
When asked about the courage it took for her, as a single woman, to leave her culture and family behind to
serve Christ in a communist nation, Virginia humbly shrugged it off saying, Its not courage. Its just obedience.
Virginia is a large lighthouse courageously shining out over a dark landscape, sweeping the land fearlessly while
standing for Christ. In contrast, think of all the Christian educators here in America, the home of the free and the
brave, and we see lamppost after lamppost lining packed urban highways but few are fully illuminated. Most are
shaded with fear, timidity, and busyness. The students, the vehicles, rushing beneath them and around them must use
their own headlights for illumination. Some vehicles have no headlights and there are some stretches where there are
no lampposts. In these areas there are many accidents and injuries.
Gods message today is, Fear not and get connected. Arise and shine in the darkness. Regularly pray alone
in your classroom and also with other believers where you work. Jesus told us to pray using both of these methods.
Many of us are operating at only half power. Get on Gods grid. Watts up!!! Arise and shine!!!

Prayer: Lord, arise in us. Get us connected to you and one another in public schools. Shine forth your glory!
Application: Make prayer a priority in your professional life.
Sharing: The times I am committing to pray alone and with other believers at work are...
CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: TEACHER! TAKE COURAGE! (For inquiries contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 13