College and University Students Exploring Teaching Children of Missionaries
(Debating whether or not teaching MKs is real missionary service? Yes it is!)
Just where do these teachers teach?
Some in “regular” schools and some in nontraditional situations.
It is absolutely incredible that you are even thinking about becoming a missionary, let alone a teacher of missionary children (MKs). This is an incredible responsibility and opportunity for you.
Since you are considering teaching children of missionaries you must already feel that you have those traits that enable you to do this work for the Lord. Those traits will likely include a passion to serve God, a love for children and a desire to teach them, a commitment to prepare yourself to do this, and a willingness to travel overseas and live and work in a place where you have never been before.
Becoming a teacher of children of missionaries aligns you with some of the most incredible people on earth. Those of us at TIS have spent many hours with these teachers in their schools and homes around the world. The dedication, sincerity, resourcefulness, warmth, and love these teachers have for children, for their parents, for each other, and of course foremost for their Lord is just incredible. They are very special people.
If you become an MK teacher the purpose would be to affect the lives of children of missionaries. This includes teaching academic subject matter of course but also extends to teaching them about Jesus and modeling Christ-like behavior. The experience of teaching MKs would remain with you for your entire life.
Teaching children of missionaries means you will be contributing to keeping their parents on the mission field doing the work the Lord called them to do. It could mean keeping them on task and not having to become teachers themselves since there was not a teacher available (It has happened, believe me!).
Teaching children of missionaries is a significant contribution to spreading the Word of God. We are told by Christ “to Go.” John tells us in Revelation that “every culture, people, nation, language. . . ” This cannot happen until the Word has reached the four corners of the earth. MK teachers play a significant role in this entire process. Teaching MKs is significant!
Mission organizations are very concerned about the safety of their missionaries. They would not send a young, inexperienced teacher to an area that is not reasonably safe. However, because of the very nature of where missionaries are, and therefore where schools for their children are located, no place is 100% safe. There are places where you live or have traveled that are not 100% safe. Please talk with mission organizations about this.
You are invited to explore this web site since it contains a lot of information that will assist you in making a decision. The first stop should be to review some Bible verses that mean a lot to us at TIS and are probably already known to you. One in particular comes to mind:
However, as it is written: No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him — but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.(1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
From there you might take a look at the home page and decide where you would like to navigate. Perhaps to FAQs or an explanation that teachers are indeed missionaries. Some links may not be relevant or interesting to you but many others will. Shop around a bit.
In the upper right area of the home page we list some teaching opportunities by geographic area. In some cases we have links to MK schools’ web site. This is not a comprehensive list. Please contact mission organizations for additional teaching opportunities.
