On the gift of perseverance in social justice:
As a teacher in an inner city high school sometimes I had students from other countries joining my homeroom.
One day in my 11th grade homeroom one student from Haiti and another from Ghana arrived. They shared a little about themselves with me in homeroom. When I saw their schedules I was appalled to see that they were treated as any other newbie from other countries — as though they were very remedial. Yet both had taken several science courses and were studying trigonometry. So I went to guidance on behalf of them both; several times.
Guidance insisted they needed to pass the simple remedial math and English courses first. However the counselor did listen to me and decided, well yes, they could also be in a trigonometry math class. I felt better for these two young men and of course they aced the remedial courses and also did well in trig. and science.
My experience reminded me of the woman Jesus described in his parable about the need to be persistent. It also reminded me about the need to care for each other which Jesus practiced and taught.
