Welcome to Disciples in Education!
Let me first applaud anyone with a signature block that includes academic degree abbreviations behind your name-- Ph.D., Ed.D, M.Ed., B.S, A.A, J.D and/or Th.D to name a few. Abbreviations matter! Obtaining degrees takes a lot of work, as it should. I, personally, have one more to conquer as I approach the strategic age of 58 years old.
Here’s a tad bit of my testimony. I found the timing of God very interesting as He called me to return to school 25 years after the completion of my bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California, Davis. I literally skipped off campus after my last final with absolutely NO plans to ever embark on any other campus. Yet when I gave God my “YES”, there was no turning back: Education Leadership, here I come!
The next round of professors would prove to be “mission essential” as I not only studied/struggled through the master’s program because of this new phenomenon called online learning, but I also began to spiritually discern the dehydrated culture and climate of educational institutions. teachers and students.
So there I was, walking the halls of international, private, DODEA, (Department of Defense Education Activity), charter, and finally, public schools.
Like Ezekiel, there was one question I was challenged to answer, “Could these dry grounds live?”
With a resounding YES, I echoed the words of Caleb, “Let us go up at once, and possess it: for we are well able to overcome it (Numbers 13:31).” Paving a path in education leadership from Regent University to Columbia International University, I was delightfully blessed, encouraged, and sometimes aggressive in my convictions. I couldn’t believe that some of God’s people couldn’t see what I was seeing! Some were biblically blind but could not see and deaf but could not hear. Lord, have mercy.
God made it plain that in the future I wouldn’t have a traditional classroom. Instead, I would receive students who could effortlessly analog, compute, decipher, collaborate, read, write, and research at any level. IEPs, 504s, and BIPs were now necessary for the Holy Spirit to succeed. God made it clear: to eradicate the many strongholds that negatively impact our nation's classrooms, schools, and districts, it would take the wisdom of God, the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Disciples in Education is set to turn public schools upside down, not just around. If you turn me around I’m going to see where I’ve been in the past. That’s not a pretty sight and it directly contradicts the concepts within the Word of God. The Apostle Paul writes, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead (Philippians 3:13). What’s ahead? Knowledge of God and His Son Jesus Christ and His will for teachers, students and parents-- ALL WITHIN THE LAW!
Disciples in Education will give you the God of the Bible: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For believers, you’re being invited to return to a former way of conversation that should have never departed from our lips in the Body of Christ. That language includes powerful examples from the Old Testament and the New Testament. For the remnant who has been holding the charge of God in your school/district, God is sending you some help. For those of you who don’t understand my written babble, we welcome you to get on board with an “aha” moment from Jesus himself, "With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)."
Let’s go!
Vanessa E. Frazier
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