Teachers Saving Children® Inc. - National
Newsletter
Volume 9, Number 4
April 1999
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"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
The following story recently came to me by e-mail. It is a beautiful reminder of the Lord's compassion, love, and faithfulness. As we reflect on this miracle of life, may the Giver and Sustainer of all life deepen and strengthen not only our faith and our hope in Him, but most of all our love for Him and one another.
Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling. They found out that the new baby was going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his little sister in Mommy's tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her.
The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the Panther Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee.
In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor. Would a C-section be required? Finally, after a long struggle, Michael's little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary's Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.
The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatric specialist regretfully had to tell the parents, "There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst." Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby, but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral.
Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. "I want to sing to her," he kept saying. Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in the Intensive Care. Karen made up her mind, though. She would take Michael whether they liked it or not! If he didn't see his sister right then, he may never see her alive.
She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed "Get that kid out of here now! NO children are allowed!" The mother rose up strong in Karen, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse's face, her lips a firm line. "He is not leaving until he sings to his sister!"
Karen towed Michael to his sister's bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing. In the pure hearted voice of a 3-year-old Michael sang: "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray." Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. Her pulse rate began to calm down and become steady. "Keep on singing, Michael," encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes. "You never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away."
As Michael sang to his sister, the baby's ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten's purr. "Keep on singing, sweetheart!!" "The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my hands..."
Michael's little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. "Keep on singing, Michael." Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glowed. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don't take my sunshine away..."
The next day...the very next day...the little girl was well enough to go home! "Women's Day Magazine" called it "The Miracle of a Brother's Song." The medical staff just called it a miracle. Karen called it a miracle of God's love!
Never give up on the people you love. Love is so incredibly powerful. Please share this with all the people that have touched your life in some way. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
(Original source unknown)
Editor's Note: Peggy Chase, RN, is the author of the curriculum, "Abstinence & Absolutes", a character based abstinence education program available in 3 versions: public school, private school, and interdenominational churches. The following is her testimony of how the Lord led her into the teaching of abstinence education to impact the lives of our children.
I accepted the Lord as my Savior 20 years ago, but as with many of us sanctification took many years and I am sure much patience on the Lord's part. He probably thought I was certainly strong-willed. It takes a lot to give our total will to the Lord, to trust him no matter what the circumstances may be in our lives.
Later in life with a husband, two children, and a part-time job, I made the decision to attend college to earn my registered nurse's degree. I began my nursing career in a hospital working the late night shift (7 PM - 7 AM) in a labor and delivery unit. The Lord used several patients during the time of my nursing career to greatly impact me. Little did I know that these events were part of a growth process, preparing me for the plan that the Lord had for my life.
The first patient was a twelve-year old little girl who delivered her baby one night during my shift. If time allowed the day after delivery, I would visit my patients. When I stopped in to visit this young lady, she reminded me of a little girl playing with a doll baby. The only problem was it was not a doll baby, but a real child with needs and demands that this young girl would not be prepared to deal with. My heart stopped as I watched from the door this child with a child, trying so hard to be an adult in a child's world. I felt pain for the childhood that she would never have, for a society that endorsed this type of behavior, and for us as a people. I wondered what I could do to change what was happening to our youth.
The second patient was a married middle-aged woman who was having a miscarriage at 16 weeks gestation. Until that night I was one of those Christians who felt that they did not want to be involved in the abortion issue. I buried my head in the sand so to speak and avoided the issue all together. The Lord was having none of that. I said I really didn't feel like dealing with a miscarriage in reports. The nurse going off duty stated "Oh, Peggy don't worry. It's just the product of conception." It bothered me a lot, and I wasn't sure why. At about 2:00 AM a perfect stillborn baby boy was delivered. He had all his fingers, all his toes, and blond hair. He was a perfect baby boy in all respects, and all he had needed to do was to grow. At that moment in time, I realized that we are killing these precious babies every day in this country, and the Lord sealed the memory of that baby on my heart forever. I had to footprint him, to weigh him, to measure him - all the procedures we do to living babies because he was born in labor and delivery. The hardest part of the night was when I had to put him in a container and send him to the lab, with the label, "products of conception." Inside I was screaming. This was not the product of conception. It was a baby; he had only needed to grow. The irony of our society hit me completely that night as I watched the couple mourn for their lost child. I thought of the thousands of babies that we throw away each day in this country.
Shortly afterwards, our daughter had an accident and it took two years for us to manage that time of our lives. I quit my job in labor and delivery because I could not take care of a child in a body cast and work, too.
When the time came for me to return to work, I changed from working with women to working in an administrative position at a male correctional facility. I wondered at the time what the Lord was doing, but felt secure that I was where the Lord had placed me. I only worked there for three years and then felt the Lord calling me somewhere else.
Next, I worked almost five years at a teen, prenatal, and family planning clinic. During the time I was there I struggled with dispensing birth control to teens without parental permission, but felt that I was where the Lord had placed me. I had the awesome privilege of leading 18 young women to the Lord. One day as I sat in church I saw a young lady with the Bible I had given her at the clinic. I thought, "This is what life is about." I counseled many times with our pastor who felt I should stay at the clinic until I felt the Lord's instruction to leave.
It was during this time that God brought the third patient who impacted my life. She was a blond haired, blue eyed, blue jean clad, fourteen-year-old high school student who came into the clinic searching for a pregnancy test. When it was negative she wanted to go on birth control without her parents' permission. I prepared her chart and she saw the doctor. The test results showed that she had the sexually transmitted disease, HPV, Human Papiloma Virus. When I called to inform her, she stated, "I can't have this. I have had sex with no one except my boyfriend and he has had sex with no one but me. I counseled with both of them and after much discussion realized they were telling the truth. Neither had had actual sexual intercourse with anyone else, but the 17-year-old male had been nude rubbing against a young lady. I told them that is where the disease came from. No one is telling our young people that one does not have to have intercourse to get some sexually transmitted infections. This young fourteen-year-old girl must live the rest of her life with this disease.
I noticed one common theme with all the young women that came to the clinic. Whether pregnant or sexually active at a young age, the theme was pain. Many had physical pain from sexually transmitted diseases; most had emotional pain, many from being used by their boyfriends, and then being tossed aside for another. But most would continue on in their lifestyles.
About this time one of the local elementary schools called and asked if I could do their sixth grade boy-girl puberty presentation. I said yes and asked about teaching abstinence. They stated they didn't need abstinence education. I said OK, and did the presentation. The following year they had two seventh graders who became pregnant, and this time when they called to ask if I could do the presentation, they asked about abstinence education. Thus, I began teaching abstinence education in our local schools with a passion to transform lives, to make a difference in a culture that is bombarded with sex, to reach out and say it is OK to not have sex, and to preserve virginity until marriage.
Three years ago, I was asked to serve on a committee to try to solve the teen pregnancy problem in our community. My supervisor thought it was a good idea since I worked with teens. So I said yes. I went to a meeting and told the other committee members that abstinence needed to be taught to our youth. The members of the committee were opposed. So, I went to my church and asked for letters in support of abstinence education. The community responded with over 600 signatures, but the committee still did not believe in abstinence education. My supervisor was upset, came into my office, and informed me that she was aware that I was discussing religion with my patients, handing out Bibles, and praying with my patients. She stated that I could do none of that any more, and since she knew that I would continue, she further stated that it would be better for my career if I were to quit instead of being fired.
The Lord is so good. That very evening my husband and I had planned to go to my parents' for a week and in fact our flight was leaving a couple hours later. We prayed and searched for the Lord's will in our lives, and knew that I could no longer continue working there.
Soon after, Heartbeat, Inc. our local crisis pregnancy center, called and asked if I would teach abstinence for their agency. I began to teach the "Abstinence & Absolutes" curriculum to our local schools while further developing the curriculum. The public school version was finished, published, and extended from our county to a neighboring county.
During this time, the Lord began waking me at night and showing me that I needed to develop a Christian version to be used in our churches and to inform parents about what is happening in our society. So with the Lord using me as His vessel, I wrote and published a church version of "Abstinence & Absolutes, Discovering God's Plan", a nondenominational Biblical approach to teaching sexuality to our teens and young adults.
The character-based education curriculum currently has versions for public school, private school, and interdenominational churches. It is taught using various picture stories, visuals, and workbooks for each student. The workbooks are for third, fourth, fifth, sixth, middle school, and high school levels. The third and fourth grade manuals include a parent signature sheet, which is to be utilized throughout the school year to reinforce these needed character traits. The church version uses a Biblical perspective to teach students that sex prior to marriage is a sin. This version uses visual aids, workbooks, Bible characters, and Bible stories relating to today's life choices.
The Lord does take the various circumstances and events within our lives and uses them to prepare us for the plan that He has for each one of us. I trust that my testimony will encourage and inspire someone else to make a difference in transforming the lives of our youth regarding the importance of abstinence until marriage.
Note: Having been a keynote speaker for many agencies and churches, Peggy is available to speak nationally both to parents and children. To schedule contact: Abstinence & Absolutes, Peggy Chase, RN, 7090 Co Rd 70, Edison OH 43320; 419-946-9335; abstinence@redbird.net.
1. Election of Officers of the Board for the 1999-2000 fiscal year was held. Connie Bancroft will serve as the Executive Director; Gary Winney will serve as the Assistant Executive Director; Lisa Rudloff will serve as Secretary; David Kaiser will serve as Treasurer.
2. The Board of Trustees approved the name of John Saxe to fill the open seat on the Board of Trustees.
3. The Board of Trustees discussed several different public relation strategies including producing a webpage and finding more ways to involve the membership.
Membership: As of April 1, 1999, there are 365 paid TSC members. This is an increase over last year and the number of interested individuals in the database continues to grow. TSC membership is open to all pro-life/pro-family educators and concerned citizens. Contributions and memberships are NOT tax deductible. Please note that according to the TSC Constitution & Bylaws, the membership year is from September 1 - August 31. Our membership drive for the 1999-2000 membership year will begin June 1st. Renewal membership information will be sent to all current members in early July.
But the union leadership's policies have not changed noticeably. Renewing the NEA may turn out to be like Vice President Al Gore's 'reinventing government' crusade: all talk and no substance.
Thursday's press event coincided with the union's release of 'Stepping Forward: How NEA Members Are Revitalizing America's Public Schools.' It is not news that good teachers who are members of the NEA are doing great things in education. But if the NEA's liberal leadership would embrace policies that revitalize American education - now, that would be a real story.
Action: To read more about the 'New Unionism' project of the NEA, go to www.nea.org."
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