A full-time homeschooler may not be the first ministry you think about in Mission, but that’s exactly where God called Jennifer Straw.

The dream

I dreamed about teaching in a one room schoolhouse, reading with first graders, teaching fifth graders math, walking home through the prairie grass... like Laura Ingalls.

Despite the fact that I spent hours playing one room schoolhouse, I didn’t think those dreams would become reality. “One room schoolhouses are things of the past”, I thought. Little did I know that in Africa many things are possible!

Today, my one room schoolhouse is shaded by a mango tree. Last year I taught my kindergartners reading, worked with third and fourth graders on math, and then gathered my five students to learn about the solar system. This year I won’t walk or bicycle home from school, I’ll ride my motorcycle!

The passion

My personal homeschooling experience left me with a passion for homeschooling; a passion for parents being incredibly involved in the lives of their children. On my first trip to Africa I saw the need for teachers to live with families in remote areas, teaching their children so they don’t have to travel hundreds of miles to boarding school.

We sang songs to learn grammar rules, set off rockets, investigated batteries and planted beans

I arrived in Africa a year ago, and met my three kindergarteners, third grader, and fourth grader. We began a school year that promised to be fantastic, chaotic, and funny. We sang songs to learn grammar rules, set off rockets, investigated batteries and planted beans. My kindergarteners kept me on my toes with comments such as, “The world is big enough to hold 300 people!” and “Math is something that 20 year olds do.”

The monkeys

The regular challenges that any teacher faces were part of my days, but there were also those unique challenges: pounding rain on the tin roof making teaching impossible or pet monkeys grabbing papers through the hole in the screen. Some days I felt like a yoyo as I moved between my kindergarteners and two older students; as soon as one group was writing their letters the other group needed assistance with math, but then suddenly the kindergarteners were done with their letters and I was not finished explaining math concepts.

But those moments of frustration were outnumbered by smooth transitions, students grasping concepts, and exciting science experiments. There is nothing quite as rewarding as watching a five-year-old read, or encouraging my fourth grader to write about his heritage as a third generation missionary kid, or grabbing my students’ attention with books that I’d loved when I was their ages.

“Teach our kids”

Recently I spent two weeks at the AIM Mayfield Guesthouse in Nairobi. If I had provided a signup sheet for my teaching services, I would be in Africa until I’m 99. It was astonishing how many families exclaimed, “When you are done there, please come teach our kids!” I knew there was a need for homeschool teachers, but I never dreamed the need was that extensive.