Greetings, friends!
I have an amazing announcement: The Fruitful Educator is expanding!
As you know, most of my writing for this page is to encourage and support all Christians in their daily walk with Jesus, but, I’ve never hidden the fact that Christian educators are near and dear to my heart (that’s why I began developing the “Teaching Practices that Testify” series after all), and I’m always searching out ways to continue supporting them. I’ve always known that the “Teaching Practices that Testify” series would benefit from co-authors and guest writers – my educational expertise is deep, but it’s not overly wide and my perspective is limited to my own experiences – so I prayed for partners in the work from day one.
And God has been oh so faithful to provide! As I wrote the first two books, He provided veteran teachers to be my thought partners and reviewer/editors (Shout out to Dottie, Brenda, Linda, and Bronlynn!) and in recent months He’s revealed an amazing encourager who’s also stepping forward as a partner-writer for “The Fruitful Educator” page on Psalm1072.com.
Let me introduce you to my new(ish) friend, Rachel!
Rachel is an educator of 14 years in public schools of WV as an English teacher in middle school and a half year in elementary school. She is a wife of 4 years to Michael Taylor, who is also an educator. Before teaching, she spent 2 years in missions work abroad in several countries, including India, Russia, Nicaragua, and China. She also spent two years as an early learning teacher at a daycare/preschool facility before answering the call to the mission field of the WV classroom.
While education has been the majority of Rachel’s professional career and main driving passion, her primary role is that of a worshipper. She is currently a worship leader in her local church and has been involved in worship since the age of 13. She seeks to worship God in everything she does.
She is the founder and creator of Secret Agents, a Facebook group and ministry dedicated to supporting and empowering teachers in their mission to reach the kids in their classrooms. This network of educators proudly provides a community for teachers to fight together for their kids through prayer, love and hope.
As of February ’23, she stepped out of the classroom in order to pursue health after becoming sick. Through her health journey, she has been able to gain an invaluable perspective of education and its current state. During the course of her health journey, she became aware of new calling in the field of writing. She has made it her goal to be the voice of the educator, bridging the gap between the teacher and his/her community.
Rachel and I connected in one of those Holy Spirit ways that can’t be explained any other way except to say “But God”. It goes like this: I led worship with a friend (who made all the arrangements) at a women’s retreat one county over back in October and a friend of Rachel’s, a fellow sister in Christ who knew neither me nor my friend who booked us, heard me talking about “Teaching Practices that Testify” and just knew Rachel and I needed to meet. She introduced us via Facebook and we clicked instantly. Our introduction to one another may seem like a random happenstance or coincidence to the untrained eye, but for those who watch for the movement of God’s hand, we know we would never have met BUT for God and to us, that means God has a purpose for our friendship and our shared interests.
For the past few months, Rachel and I have been thought-partnering on how to support teachers through a group she created on Facebook and also on the creation of a local conference for Christian educators, administrators, and service personnel. We’ve had a lot of good ideas, and made some strides, but sometimes things just don’t stick or timelines just don’t work out. We’ve kept praying and talking, looking for God’s next invitation, and THEN, I landed a new position opening and administering a Christian early learning center, and I found myself short on time to write. I began to wonder if God was calling me out of the writing/speaking arena, but Rachel stayed faithfully with me, reminding me of the call to write and to work with teachers, even as the new arena in which God has placed me began to feel a little overwhelming.
And, it turns out, that while I’ve given little time to writing in the past few weeks, Rachel has been writing quite a bit lately and her writing, oh friends, it’s God-honoring and so, so GOOOOD! Like me, she writes on Christian topics for every believer (I can’t wait ’til she releases her writing on worship), but she also writes Christian devotions and encouragement specifically for educators. One of my favorite things about Rachel is that she doesn’t shy away from the fact that we are all, always, in a spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:12), and one of the greatest battles being fought right now is over the well-being, safety, and security of our children – not just in the here and now, but for eternity.
Committed to the belief that Christians in education are God’s warriors on that battlefield, Rachel is developing a blog right here on Psalm1072.com titled “Warring Hearts”.
Our current plan is for “Warring Hearts” to appear on The Fruitful Educator page of Psalm1072.com every Thursday.
It’s our hope that it will send the email updates and link to social media the same way that my writings do, but we may have a week or two of trial and error getting her posts to show up all the ways that you are used to accessing them. If you aren’t in education, I encourage you to read Rachel’s “Warring Hearts” blog anyway. We’re all in a spiritual battle, and we could all use the tools and encouragement her writing provides.
As always, thank you, friends, for your continued readership, support, and encouragement! I hope to begin posting every Tuesday for now, starting next week.
God is doing great things in our community and right here on Psalm1072.com!
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