The three educators featured on our cover this month teach in different settings — public school, private Christian school and homeschool — but they agree on two things: God has called them to be exactly where they are, and their work extends far beyond simply imparting knowledge to their students.

“We’re not just teachers, we’re life coaches,” said Lisa Hiott, a Spanish teacher at Pickens High School. She often sees students who come from broken homes and dire circumstances. “The students that God puts in your life represent a mission field,” she said.

Thurston Faulkner, who teaches social sciences and apologetics at Spartanburg Christian Academy, says it is a joy for him to be led by the Lord in being an influence to the students he teaches. “If students don’t have answers to the questions of life when they leave, then I have failed,” he said.

Angela Storay, who teaches her three children — 10, 14 and 16 — at her Greenville home, feels that homeschooling offers her the opportunity to nurture the individual gifts God has given each child. It also affords more opportunities for her family to do ministry together, she said; her husband is a staff minister at Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Easley.

The three teachers also agree that God can use teachers in any setting, whether public or private. “We’re not from the same cookie cutter,” said Hiott. “God wants Christian people everywhere.”

Said Faulkner: “We’re all working for God’s kingdom, not against each other.”