You want me to be a teacher?
Neither of us envisioned a career as teachers, but that’s the plan the Lord had for us. For Hans, going to Cameroon to teach was an escape from “selling somebody’s stuff”. Selling pharmaceutical products was one of the only “real jobs” he thought he could get fresh out of Vanderbilt majoring in both molecular biology and psychology. He really wanted to grow in his understanding of the brain, but grad school was not appealing. Teaching seemed like a decent route to go to have an adventure in Africa, a place that’d captured his imagination since being a kid, so Peace Corps seems like a good choice.
Susan’s true love in college was English literature, but she wisely got a minor in biology as well with the hope of one day being a veterinarian. Choosing to go to Africa as a teacher was meant to be a two year diversion before continuing on to something “bigger and better”. Her biology coursework helped land her a position in Peace Corps and her French classes suggested she could teach science in French. So, Peace Corps assigned her to French-speaking Central African Republic.
We now have a combined 42 years of experience in education, 37 in the classroom, and could never have predicted it. God’s funny that way but looking back we can see how he’s orchestrated our lives and careers every step of the way to prepare us for the “next chapter” back in Africa.
Our children
God has blessed us with four beautiful children and of all the struggles in our hearts about this next chapter, we have had the most heart-wrenching talks with God about our decision to leave our three daughters back in the US in college while Susan, Hans, and 16 year old Nate, move to South Africa. Praying is hard work, but He’s moved in our heart to trust Him to watch over our daughters. We don’t know all of the details, but we’re convinced that this wouldn’t be a “faith walk” if we knew precisely how everything would unfold. While we really feel He’s made it clear to us that we need to trust in Him to unfold each of our lives as He sees fit over the next few years, it would not be an honest statement to say that we remain concerned about how our daughters will fair in our absence. So many people have offered to help us look after the girls during our absence. We’re most grateful and see each offer as another facet of His provision, but it’s still hard. We’ll be on our knees each and every day holding them up in prayer. It’s great to be forced to lean on Him.
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