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| Volunteer channels passion for art into teaching ministry at Circle-Rock Prep School |
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| Every Friday Deborah makes the hour commute from Woodridge, Illionois to our neighborhood to teach art at CRPS. This week Deborah has the children painting pyramids and creating 3-D sphinxes."We're starting at the beginning of art history and working our way forward," she explains, beginning with primitive art and moving through Egyptian, Greek and Roman art. For each period she creates simple but engaging projects, increasing in complexity for each grade. As she prepares to teach, she opens her art supply cabinet, and a smile brightens her face. "This is my miracle cabinet," she says as she opens its metal doors. A $300 donation from Naperville Evangelical Free Church's outreach ministry started the cabinet. Other church members donated scissors, markers and pastels. Deborah was exposed early to art through her artist mother, and then discovered her own giftedness in grammar school. Art became her favorite class, the one place in school where she could really shine. As an adult, she received a BA in elementary ed, homeschooled her children, and then returned to the classroom. "That's my love and that's what I know God has cut me out to do," she says. Deborah's dedication both to art and to teaching keeps her reaching higher. Every week she observes a teacher in Naperville who was recognized as National Art Teacher of the Year. She attends every art education conference she can find. Then she brings all that knowledge and passion to our children as a ministry."I've always thought I would serve in my church," says Deborah, "but to me this is my way of serving through the church." Naperville EFC already sponsors children at CRPS through our Appleseed Partners program. When CRPS principal visited Naperville, she invited the congregation to get involved, and Deborah saw her opportunity to serve. What is it that keeps her here? "It's so freeing to be able to tell the kids, 'Who was the first artist? It was God!' and to see their eyes light up," she explains. "I couldn't say this kind of thing in the public school." Deborah provides a real service at CRPS, where she is the first official art teacher. Most of the children many of the children come with the most basic knowledge of the subject. In many of their homes, working or single parents discourage the messy process of creating art. But she has already seen special aptitude in some of the children. Remembering her own discovery of art, she just wants to pass it along. "I think art is as important a subject as anything else. It enriches people's lives." she says. "I'm so glad I can give them art." |
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