Twenty five years of Water of Life

My earliest memories of Water of Life include going to the Terra Vista building for services and soon relocating Sunday mornings to the Ruth Musser Middle School gymnasium. The high school continued to meet at the Terra Vista building while I was attending. I cannot remember the exact date we first went to WOL, but I know it was in the middle of my Jr. High school grades from 1994-1996. It was both a major transition time for the Church and for me personally.

Previous to Water of Life my family attended another large non-denominational congregation we had been at since moving to California in 1987. There were several reasons why the Lord was leading us to a new church, one which was that I needed a good youth group to start attending once I hit high school. It is hard to believe now looking back that it has been that long. Water of Life is celebrating twenty five years this year, I am about to turn thirty-four years old. Time goes so fast.

In the wonderful miraculous journey that the Lord took the church on during those years, from the inheritance, to the land at East Ave. I can remember praying over the Inherit the Land and Possessing the Land campaigns, which included walking around the property and praying. We sought God for His rich blessings to flow on the land, and on the people who would be ministered to in that place.

In the summer of 2003 I moved away from Water of Life and California to the east in order to get married and start a family. For several years I still listened to sermons coming from the church and Pastor Dan Carroll. I continued to email him regularly to keep him updated on what God is doing with me. I still listen regularly to the messages via the church website and podcast. Every week I am anxious to hear more about what God is doing in the Church and what God is speaking to me through the messages.

We serve a mighty God who is madly in love with people. This is something which I have learned and witnessed over and over again throughout the years. I praise Him for all He does. I think about the prayers we prayed over the land, seeking God’s will and work to be done. There are thousands touched every week in that Church and around the world through outreach missions. God has all the glory for everything. It is a constant reminder to keep praying by faith, even for the things we cannot see or understand right now. We do not know what He has in mind. He is still doing amazing things at Water of Life and doing amazing things in my life.

In the great divinely crafted tapestry of my life, I am thankful every day for Water of Life and the work of those individuals who served and continue to serve God’s Kingdom. I am continually blessed and marked for life having WOL woven into my story. I know whatever He has planned for me now in the place He has planted me will be full of purpose. So I strive forward to what is ahead for all that He wills. 

My teaching philosophy

Every child is a unique individual capable of learning, understanding, and responding to education. Children come from all different backgrounds, and are placed in with a mix of others who are all in the same way going to respond to everything in their own way. I have always believed it is important to understand what a child is saying and respond to them with respect and kindness. 

There really can be no other way as a teacher, as teachers are called to teach and guide.

Elementary education is the very roots of the rest of a persons’ life. As that child grows up to be an adult what they learned while young will have greater influence on them as anything else they experience. Kids are going to take the things they learned growing up, from the classroom environment to the home environment and use those lessons to become who they are in the world. One of the most vital skills a child will take from school is not just the ability to read but the enjoyment of reading.

As every child is an individual learner, there are a multitude of ways to help them understand reading. For those kids who learn through visual or spatial means, it might be as simple as learning to read instructions to play a game. Naturalistic learners can find animal facts an interesting thing to discover. With each child there is a way to present the love of learning and the desire to continue in the skill.

With each new child I teach I will look at them as an individual, deserving my attention, along with all of their classmates, and acceptance that they do not know everything yet. I can be confident in what I know and am able to teach them. I will be ready; knowing everything I do is a reflection of what I believe. When there are challenges to be faced, and there will be, I will handle them with sensitivity. It is important to me that the kids learn how to love reading and writing so they will be successful adults and enjoy all of the wonderful worlds contained in books.

All my life I have always had a creative mindset when it comes to accomplishing a task. I am always on the lookout for any tools near me which might be of help. This makes me more of the stage manager when it comes to playing and teaching children. As a child myself I was the one who came up with the creative ideas for the neighborhood kids. I would grab empty buckets and some wood beams to set up obstacle courses for one example. This creative aspect of my nature will enable me in the teaching world to help aid children in the art of learning while playing. As long as I have the resources I will enjoy watching the children learn and discover along with me.

My goal is to be the teacher the children remember later in life as the one who had the most fun ways of learning new things. There is so much to learning then simply reading in a text book and answering questions. Real life is hands on, so the children should have as much hands on learning as they can. The best memories I have from early elementary school are those involving special project assignments. When a teacher takes something and helps it come to life with the kids it holds a special meaning.

As I grow as a teacher all of the different roles will manifest at one point or another. I like the focus of a stage manager, as they present the various pieces or props, for the children to work with and learn from. I imagine it is very much like a science lab in a sense as I present the children or subjects with tasks to preform and watch what they and I learn from them. There will never be a time when I am not learning as much as the kids are. All teachers have to be open to allow the kids to teach in return even as they are learning.


It will be my responsibility to present the children with the learning material in a fun and creative way every day. I want my kids to talk about what they are learning and doing in my class even when it is not obvious to them what they are gaining. It will take a lot of effort on my part but I look forward to gaining more skills and knowledge so the future children I help will benefit.