January 23, 2015

Catholic Schools Week Supplement

Motto of ‘live for Jesus’ helps teacher to shape her faith with children

Teacher Jenny Lents takes advantage of every opportunity to share her faith with her students.

Teacher Jenny Lents takes advantage of every opportunity to share her faith with her students.

By John Shaughnessy

As part of their morning ritual, the students and staff members at St. Louis School in Batesville say these words, “Live for Jesus, love others, and learn.”

As a teacher there, Jenny Lents had the opportunity to live that motto in a special way when the school hosted several junior high school exchange students from China.

“The students had very limited exposure to Christianity,” Lents recalls. “As part of my language arts class, I have a writing workshop day each week where students may choose a topic of their own to write about. As I was conferencing with my young authors, one of the Chinese students, Ann, told me that she wanted to know more about ‘him’ as she pointed to the crucifix hanging on my wall.

“I knew this was possibly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Ann, so I quickly said a silent prayer to the Holy Spirit for guidance and began to share the Good News with her. She smiled and began to write about Jesus.

“This was so rewarding for me because it was an open opportunity to witness for Jesus and plant some seeds of faith. As a Catholic educator, you hope you are planting seeds of faith in your students every day, and that your students are receptive to it, but you don’t always get to openly see the difference you are making.

“This was a chance that reaffirmed that what I do every day matters. It energized me to work even harder for Jesus, the Master Teacher, in word and action.” †

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