Greetings from Immanuel Mission! My name is Hannah Barr and I am the new second grade teacher. I am very excited to be here and I know that this new endeavor is a part of God’s plan for my life.
I grew up in Longmont, Colorado and had just moved back after spending a year in Europe working at an international school. I had decided to live in Denver and pursue a career in social work, which is what my degree is in. After many job rejections and months of frustration, I started to wonder if this was what God really wanted me to do. In the meantime, John Bloom was visiting my grandma’s church in Phoenix. After speaking about the Mission, my grandma had a feeling that this would be something I would really enjoy. She called me in Colorado and got the answering machine. I received her message that night and ignored it. I know, I know, I am a bad granddaughter, but I was tired of hearing everyone’s ideas of what I should be doing. I chose to ignore the message and continue in my fruitless job search. A few weeks after my grandma left the message I was baptized at church, which was a big step for me in my spiritual walk with Christ. That afternoon after I was baptized, my grandma called me and told me about the Mission. I knew immediately that this was what I wanted to do. God just had to prepare my heart in order to reveal His plan! Just three weeks earlier I was not ready to listen to Him. I am thankful that He did not give up on me, and here I am as proof.
I am so excited to be here at Immanuel Mission. I had never taught before and was quite nervous about the first day of school, but God was so gracious and the first day of school couldn’t have gone any smoother. I have six beautiful children in my class and I can’t wait to get to know each one of them. It is so thrilling getting to teach God’s word every day to these young minds. Last week I was teaching them about Moses parting the Red Sea. They asked many questions and one of them asked, “Did that really happen in real life?” And I got to say, “YES, yes it did. What I am teaching you is all true!” They all looked amazed that something so incredible could happen in real life. Not only do I get to teach God’s truth to these children, but I get to see their reactions to it, the reactions of children that have not grown up in Christian homes and may be hearing many of these stories for the first time. Sometimes I forget how incredible these Bible stories really are. Then I see the face of a student after I tell him that God parted a sea and I am reminded of God’s awesome power!
God has already been providing for me in incredible ways. I pray every day that I can be an example of His love to these children and to anyone I come into contact with here at my new home. I look forward to becoming a part of this community and getting to know the people that live here. Right now I feel like I am reading a book and constantly absorbing new information about the culture and the people. I want to learn as much as I can about the people I am hoping to impact. I feel incredibly blessed to be here and it is very clear that this is where I am supposed to be.