Spiritual Gifts

During the week prior to school starting, all of the teachers spent each day going through training classes, team building exercises, and just getting to know each other and preparing for the coming school year. We took a series of surveys that helped each teacher discover what kind of a learner they are. There were words like "concrete sequential" and "abstract random". A lot of it seemed abstract to me, but it was good, and I learned. We found out what kind of personality types we are, and learned what our top love languages are. All of these things helped me immensely with my understanding of teaching, since I come from a perspective that contains zero classroom teacher training or experience! 

But the thing that I found most interesting, from a ministry perspective, was when we took a spiritual gifts test. Now I have taken several of these over the past decade or so, so I pretty much knew what to expect from my answers. A few things have changed a bit, especially given the life changes my family and I have experienced in the past year, but for the most part, my giftings landed pretty much where I expected them to. Here is what I didn't expect. When we shared each others top spiritual gifts, of the 19 Ghanaians in the room, 13 of them had "Faith" as one of their top two gifts. Immediately, I started wondering how that ratio would play out if we were taking that test with 19 Americans, where we live our lives predicated on our own materialistic wants, and if we need something, we go to the store and buy it. These folks come from a way of life that often requires them to trust God for their next meal. Its no wonder faith is a strong characteristic for them. Just something to think about.

Cayle