Six years ago I walked into the Denver Street School a broken, angry sixteen-year-old girl with something to prove. I was determined to make something of myself after I had nearly destroyed my life and was sick of being told I wasn’t going to succeed in my endeavor.
But when I came to DSS, I encountered something I didn’t expect: Teachers who believed in me and genuinely wanted the best for me and my god-daughter, whom I was taking care of. I found friends who became stand-in sisters and brothers and a mentor, Allison, who to this day I consider to be my “other mom”. Why was this school so different than the multiple others I had attended? Because they met me exactly where I was, broken and hurting, came around me as a family, and shared the Gospel with me in a way that I understood.
During my time there, the Street School taught me your standard “school stuff” like Biology and Trigonometry, but most importantly, they taught me that I mattered– both in their eyes and in the eyes of God– and that I could make something of myself and become the positive role model to my god-daughter that I so desired to be.
Since that first day of school 6 years ago, my former teachers and peers have walked along side me and empowered me when I needed strength to make it through college, loved me when I made stupid mistakes, and showed me the light of Christ when I was lost in the darkness of death and depression that has come in waves over the last several years.
And this year, I have been given a new position within my “second family” as a full-time English teacher. Having experienced the darkness that many of these students have, I am elated to have the opportunity to pour love and hope back into their lives. But you see, the Denver Street School runs on a very small budget and because I am in the “internship” phase of my teaching licensure, I am therefore an “additional teacher”. There is no money in the budget to pay me a full salary. So I am taking a huge step out in faith and will be raising my own wage this school year, as many missionaries do.
I know that I am exactly where God wants me to be this year, so I am setting aside all of the things in life that tell me that this is an illogical move and am stepping out in faith, knowing that God is going to supply, just as He promises to do in Matthew 6.
And while I know this truth, I also know that I can’t do this alone.
So if you are reading this, I am asking you to please pray for me. Raising your own salary is unnerving, but I know that just like God brought me to the Street School six years ago, that He is going to provide in ways that I can’t even fathom. Ways that will glorify Him and allow my students to know that I am 100% in this journey for them, and not the money (or lack there of…)
Whether you are able to support me in prayer or financially, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know I am standing on the edge of beautiful things and know the Lord is about to blow down walls in my life, and the lives of my students this year.
I will be logging my journey here on my blog and via newsletters throughout the year, so be sure to subscribe to my blog in the right column or send me your e-mail so I can keep you updated on the amazing things that God is doing here in Denver at the Street School.
Thank you for your generosity and for allowing me to pour into the lives of my wonderful students!
Louise in the Light 