Brooklane member teaching in Israel

Brooklane member teaching in Israel

If you look at the road that led Shirley Lashley to volunteer work in Israel, you see that it is full of divine circumstances and God-appointed meetings. Otherwise, Lashley said, she’d never be where she is today.

Lashley, a retired nurse who is a member of Hueytowns’s Brooklane Baptist Church, recently visited the Hueytown area after her first year of work as a teacher at The Jerusalem School. She pent the summer talking about her experiences with Baptist churches throughout Alabama.

Just more than a year ago, Lashley had returned to live with her mother in Hueytown. Although she had been saved and baptized as a child, Lashley had recently become more committed to Christ and had become a more active member. She sensed God was planning on doing something “bigger” with her life – missions.

She felt God was telling her to teach children somewhere, and then the word “Israel” began running through her mind. She finally felt she knew what God wanted her to do.

The logistics of a move to Israel, however, were harder to figure out. With no missionary board backing – no idea of where to start at all – she decided to trust God to provide her with answers.

At a garage sale she held to raise money for a trip to Israel, Lashley experienced one of the first “God0appointed meetings” on her journey to become a missionary. “A man came to the garage sale who told me of a missionary couple who worked in Israel,” she remembered. “He told me how to get in touch with them.”

The missionary couple put Lashley in contact with the Jerusalem School. The school welcomed her as a teacher for the upcoming school year.

The Jerusalem School is a school for both Christian and Muslim students that serve grades K4 through 12. The school teaches from the Abeka curriculum, but teachers are allowed to use Bible stories and Christian teachings.

Lashley taught second grade, something she never imagined herself doing. “I’m a retired nurse and have never taught before,” she said. “I was more afraid of getting in front of that class on the first day of school than I was of anything else.”

During her nine months as a teacher, Lashley took advantage of the opportunity to witness to the children in her class. She used Bible stories and books and found most of the children were curious about them.

“At first, the Muslim children wouldn’t look at the books, but by January they were all grabbing them and wanting me to read them,” Lashley said. “They got to where they couldn’t wait to read along with me on the New Testament stories.”

The children in her class, Lashley said, have taught her much about life and faith. They have also put a new spin on the clash between Jews, Muslims and Christians. “These children are smart, conscientious students who want to make god grades. Most of them come from families with professional backgrounds,” she said. “They just are precious.”

Lashley returned to The Jerusalem School Aug. 18 for the beginning of the fall semester on Sept. 3.