{"id":1942,"date":"2021-01-28T16:44:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T21:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/?p=1942"},"modified":"2023-07-18T21:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T01:08:28","slug":"watching-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2021\/watching-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u00a0\u201cOne day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him \u2018Lord teach us how to pray just as John taught his disciples\u2019. Luke 11:1 (NIV)<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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I was recently on an educational professional development field trip with eight of my students in Ecuador. We visited coffee, banana, and cacao plantations; learned more about rose production and general tourism; and met with alumni. I was on an academic high as students expanded their knowledge and worldview perspective. <\/p>

One evening, my students broached a topic not covered by our trip: Christianity. Some of my students knew I was a Christian. I had devoted my best efforts to mentoring and guiding all of my students. I had hoped that their experience with me would lead them to a positive view of Christianity. <\/p>

Unfortunately, the nature of the discussion focused on their negative views of evangelical Christians and the current presidential administration. Several students expressed that closed-minded Christians were responsible for all of society\u2019s current ailments. I tried nuancing their view but without success.<\/p>

To these students, \u201cevangelical\u201d was a dirty word.<\/p>

With that less-than-favorable view of a segment of Christ\u2019s community, I was more than a bit discouraged during my evening prayer time. Alone in my room, I prayed that the students would continue to feel like I was a safe person to talk with and that they would experience Christ\u2019s love through me.  <\/p>

Several days passed and the academic portion of the trip was going well. I didn\u2019t expect the \u2018Christ connection\u2019 to re-emerge. Perhaps it was for the best. But then, it happened again. I was eating lunch with two of my students and one of the students asked me, \u201cWhy do you pray?\u201d and \u201cWhat is baptism?\u201d <\/p>

The student asking these questions was international, and not from a country where religion is widespread or encouraged. I was grateful for this open door and for the opportunity to share aspects of my faith with these two students. I could see that, despite the earlier negative conversation, Christ was still at work revealing himself to these students through me. God had answered my prayer.<\/p>

Looking back, I am thankful that my students were comfortable sharing with me their heartbreaking perspective of the \u2018villain\u2019 evangelical Christian. I disagree with this viewpoint of Christianity, but Christ utilized this opportunity to bring about additional spiritual interest and candid, honest conversation.<\/p>

The trip allowed for these conversations in a way that the classroom sometimes hinders. It was while traveling together, eating together and spending full days in company together that the Spirit guided these students to open up. It\u2019s a lesson that I took back to the States and take into my prayer time: how can I continue to connect with students outside the classroom?<\/p>

These trips are precious times for students to connect with us as people and, I pray, see Christ.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Amanda Hodges<\/b>
University of Florida<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u201cOne day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him \u2018Lord teach us how to pray just as John taught his disciples\u2019. Luke 11:1 (NIV) I was recently on an educational professional development field trip with eight of my students in Ecuador. We visited coffee, banana, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50274,"featured_media":278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2438],"tags":[2834,2837,2835,2575,2669,2836],"class_list":["post-1942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentoring-students","tag-academic-trip","tag-amanda-hodges","tag-connect-with-students","tag-conversation","tag-lunch","tag-outside-of-classroom"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWatching Eyes - Faculty Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/campus.cru.org\/faculty\/2021\/watching-eyes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watching Eyes - Faculty Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0\u201cOne day Jesus was praying in a certain place. 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