Teaching Missionary Kids at Odessa Christian Academy

By Carol Bagley

It started with the prayers of missionaries in Ukraine. But even before they started praying, God was preparing me to begin Odessa Christian Academy. I had never heard of Odessa when I started teaching in a rural, multiple-grade Christian school. Later, I had the opportunity to be the principal of a large Christian elementary school near Cleveland. During that time, the Lord called my husband and me into missions, and specifically to Ukraine.

Churches and friends in the U.S.A. gathered supplies and books. Ukrainian students from the Church Ministries Institute helped clean and prepare the classroom. Ukrainians and missionaries worked together building playground equipment and bookshelves. Finally, on September 1, 2000, the Odessa Christian Academy opened with one teacher and four grades: second, third, sixth, and seventh.

Teaching in Odessa has its challenges, not only with administering a teacher-led curriculum over four grade levels, but also living with the routine loss of electricity and water. The multiple grade-classroom has advantages: younger students strive to learn more, while older ones act as helpers. And the teacher has many opportunities to impact the lives of the students with the truth of God's Word.

Sometimes MK teachers feel as if they are not REAL missionaries, since their focus is not with nationals. But the work of an MK teacher is foundational to getting families to go to a foreign country. The MK teacher is the enabler, multiplying him/herself many times through freeing parents to take an active role in ministry. I have also had numerous opportunities to interact with national schoolteachers. Hadezhda, Ludmilla, and Lilya have visited my classroom. Later, when visiting their classrooms, I have seen them implementing ideas they observed in my classroom. Teaching MKs is an outreach to both the mission community and to nationals.