Meet Mr. Janssen

It takes a special person to teach science. I should know. I have taught math, history, English, and science in my career, and the only subject I feel I failed to do justice to was science. This is bizarre since I went to college to become a science teacher and have a science specialization on my certification. I taught a year of senior level physics and a year of seventh grade life science. Somebody have me committed to a psychiatric hospital if I ever volunteer to teach science again.

Fortunately for me and for the students of Greater Grace Christian Academy, we have a bona fide scientist for a science teacher. Mr. Janssen loves science and loves teaching and loves students, so he is an amazing science teacher. He loves God too, so that makes him an amazing Christian science teacher, and that is even better, because the beauty of science can only be truly understood in the light of truth which is found in the Creator, without Whom there would be no science.

From time to time I wander into Mr. Janssen's classroom to discover something that I never knew. I love the way he shows how what he is teaching connects to the world we live in and points to the God we love. He has a great sense of humor and a strong desire for each student to reach his or her potential. With Mr. Janssen, as it is with our other teachers, mastery of the subject is secondary to development of the person. Pardon my paraphrase but, "What does it profit a student if he learns everything there is to know about science or math or history, etc., if he or she doesn't discover and fall in love with the person of Jesus Christ?" Answer? There's no eternal value in knowledge for knowledge's sake. There are too many "educated" people walking the broad road to hell who know so much about everything but the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

You can learn a lot of science in Mr. Janssen's class and you can learn a lot about being a man or woman of God from the lesson of Mr. Janssen's life. Why not be a wise person and learn both? (He sure looks like a happy guy, doesn't he?)

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