An Encouraging Story For Teachers
For quite awhile I’ve been telling an encouraging story about Laura Fasig. When telling this story recently, I realized that it is so encouraging to some that I should write and publish the story.
One Important Aspect
To be accurate, this story should be entitled “Who Is Laura Fasig … To Me?” The story I’m telling here only addresses one facet of “Who Is Laura Fasig?” No doubt, Laura Fasig’s life was richly multi-faceted. So, I hope and pray that those who knew her far better than I did (especially her family) won’t be offended by my focusing on this one aspect of her life.
Important To Me
Before going on, it’s important for me to tell a little bit about how the most important part of my life led me to become acquainted with Laura Fasig. That is my becoming a Christian.
When people ask me about how I became a Christian, I tell them that the process began the first Sunday after I was brought home from being born at Terre Haute’s Saint Anthony’s Hospital, when my Mother and my Grandma Ray took me to the Second Avenue EUB Church.
Of course, I don’t actually remember that but I confirmed it with my Mom in the latter stages of her life. Actually, when I asked her about it she said, “Yes; me, your Grandma Ray and your Dad.” Since my Dad had left my Mom to marry another woman when I was three years old, I found additional comfort in knowing that he was there too. I’d forgotten that my Mom and Dad had first become acquainted in the Youth Group at Second Avenue.
The picture on the right captures a moment from my Mom and Dad being together in Southern California on R&R during WWII.
Becoming A Christian
Although my going to church started pretty immediately after my birth, of course, that didn’t make me a Christian. I always thought a good way to illustrate that truth was with the metaphor, “Just because you spend a lot of time in a garage, that doesn’t make you a Buick.” John 3:1-21 tells the story of a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, coming at night to inquire of Jesus, who answered him by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” There are, basically, two steps required to be born again … (1) Repenting from a life of sin and (2) Believing in Jesus as your Savior. I did that at Second Avenue EUB when I was twelve years old.
The role that Laura Fasig played in my becoming a Christian was that she was my Kindergarten Sunday School Teacher. Although the other kids in Mrs. Fasig’s class were kids from our neighborhood, I only really remember one of them … Jackie Schofield. We actually went to a High School Prom together, we were in school together through college and we’re still connected via Facebook. I, also, remember that our Sunday School Class met in the basement of Second Avenue EUB while “the grownups” Sunday School Service was going on in the sanctuary upstairs. After Sunday School, we would join our families to be together for the main church service. When I think of Mrs. Fasig’s Kindergarten Sunday School Class, one lesson stands out in my mind. It was the story of Zacchaeus, as told in Luke 19:1-10. Mrs. Fasig used a felt story board to teach us that story. I’d never seen anything like it and it fascinated me, Since I clearly recall this teaching seventy years later, obviously, it had a lasting impact,
Long-term Importance
The kids shown to the left are my Sister, Nancy, my Brother, Dick and the Kindergarten-age me in the early 1950s.
To Kinders, all adults are old. They don’t necessarily recognize different stages of adulthood. In my five-year-old mind, there was little difference in the age of Mrs. Fasig and the age of my Mother. As an adult, I learned that Mrs. Fasig was actually closer to the age of my Grandma Ray. In fact, I learned that when my Mother was a child, on a regular basis, Mrs. Fasig was known to go throughout the neighborhood to gather up kids, taking them to her home to teach them lessons from the Bible. It was knowing this that led me to consider the impact that Laura Fasig had on the lives of others.
Since I hadn’t been in touch with Mrs. Fasig for a very long time, I decided to do some research to find out what had become of her. Of course, today, you can learn a lot about almost anyone via Google. Sadly, I was unable to find any good photo of Laura Fasig but I did find her obituary. That revealed that she had lived to be 99 years old. She had been married to Arnold Fasig and they left behind a Son and Daughter-in-law, a Granddaughter and two Great-granddaughters. And, it confirmed what I said earlier about her life being richly multi-faceted. She was a member of Terre Haute Memorial United Methodist Church, Terre Haute Elks Ladies Golf League 18 Hole Group and she was a charter member of Terre Haute’s Badoura Temple 23 Daughters of the Nile. Her burial is in Terre Haute’s Roselawn Memorial Park; where my Mother, Father and Grandma Ray are buried.
My focus in considering the impact that Laura Fasig had on the lives of others was the number of years the Lord blessed her with. She lived to be 99. In thinking about what my Mother had told me about Mrs. Fasig gathering up neighborhood kids to teach them lessons from the Bible, I realized that took place about 100 years ago. Although my Mother’s family didn’t move into that neighborhood until she was nine-years-old, she would have been Kindergarten-age in 1924. Assuming that Mrs. Fasig continued touching the lives of neighborhood kids until she went home to be with the Lord in 1994, that means she did that for 70 years. One can only imagine the number of lives she impacted during that time.
To me, the way that Laura Fasig impacted lives was more important than the number of lives she touched. I would argue that there is no teaching more important than Biblical instruction, leading to eternal salvation. But how do you measure something like that? I think that my vivid memory of her use of that Zacheus Felt Bible Story Board is a good indicator. That lesson was taught by Mrs. Fasig over 70 years ago and I’m still talking about it. Obviously, that is an indicator of how Mrs, Fasig’s teaching made a positive difference in my life. But, the impact of that teaching didn’t stop with me. You can rest assured that I’ve passed along the Biblical instruction I was given to many others; including our Daughters, our Grandchildren and our Great-grandchildren.
Treasure In Heaven
My regret, in telling this story, is that I never had the opportunity to tell Laura Fasig what a positive impact she had on my life and to thank her for it. I’m confident that she got something far better when she arrived in Heaven. That is hearing our Lord tell her, “Well done good and faithful servant.” If you’re a Teacher striving to make a positive difference in young lives, I hope you’ll keep this in mind. It’s likely that many of your Students won’t recognize the gift you’re giving them in a timely manner. Please don’t let that discourage you. Bear in mind that, like what Laura Fasig did, what you’re doing is making a lifetime difference for your students, as well as in the lives of others whose lives they touch.
