Dear Teacher

After all your prayer and fasting, here you're posted in secondary school to teach. This is not the kind of NYSC you wanted but it's what it's. You can either spend your one year in sorrow or in being productive. I assure you, God does not want your experience to be a sad one.

You're so tired of the country. Despite your degree in Mechanical engineering, the only job you could get is a teaching job and the schools are not even paying well. Every day you go to school, wishing you did not. Worse still, seeing the student reminds you of your failures. It reminds you that you couldn't get a good job. This is not the dream you had while in school, but it's what it's. You can either spend this period in anger or in being productive.

Dear teacher, as bad as today's societal attitude toward teaching and the paucity of monetary rewards, being in a school environment is one of the best opportunities to make a real impact in the lives of young people. You can't be doing the work unhappy when you could sow greatly to the future of those children. It's time for you to see beyond the pay, beyond the job title, and beyond the social status and pressure.

There is no better time to change a life than when people are still very young. It is a great privilege ministry-wise to be in a school environment where there are so many young people you can redefine their path and destiny in life. During my secondary school days, sir Otobo Johnwill Sonari saw his posting to our school as a ministry. He was particularly interested in our success and freedom from negative sexual influence and abuse. He taught us so much beyond the school subjects. He trained us to believe in ourselves and gave us exposures we never had in life. We were featured in NTA courtesy of his Bright-Boys zip-up program. It was neither Queens school nor King's kid but he challenged us to see beyond the school environment. He became our role model.

It's over 15 years now that Johnwill served in my secondary school, but the difference he made in my life has kept me connected to him. I could still remember the joy I felt seeing him on Facebook years after I left secondary school. You too can make a difference. You too can rebuild that child that others saw as good for nothing. If you're able to change the life of one person, you have succeeded in bringing joy to heaven. Something no amount of money can achieve.

Don't waste this precious time that you're there. The harvest truly is plenteous, get to work. Once you start seeing your work in that classroom as a ministry, your days of unhappiness will be over. You will see something bigger than your salary, you will see something carnal mind cannot see, you will see a great opportunity to change a life if not lives. Remember, there is nothing as precious as a soul.

Dear teacher, be encouraged.