Bible Students

Interview with Steve Eelkema, a public school teacher and a Christian man.

JACOB: Today we have a special guest Steve Eelkema a Christian art teacher at a public school in Southern California today Steve’s going to talk about how he as a Christian man is able to glorify God in his workplace and how he’s able to represent Christ in his secular work environment so Steve why don’t you introduce yourself and talk a bit about your education and background in the church as well as just where you’re coming from as a Christian man working at a public school

STEVE: Okay I’m Steve Oka um I guess I can go back as far as I am a graduate of Northwestern College which is a Reformed Church College in Iowa I graduated there with my BA in art education um upon moving to California I had to receive my certification um endorsed to teach K through 12 art um yeah yeah so that’s educational stuff I’ve been teaching I think this might be my 25th 26 27 I don’t know they kind of run together um all in public school um you’re right I’m a Christian guy teaching in a public school uh I’ve grown up in the church uh I’ve served as a church Deacon and a church Elder uh a couple of times uh I’ve also served as a church um I won’t say youth pastor but a youth leader um sometimes being in a supportive role sometimes being in a lead role uh so a lot of my life has been centered around youth uh and obviously Christ

JACOB: Yeah that’s awesome thank you um so why don’t you describe your current working environment um at your school and just how you’re able to represent Christ in your workplace and also how that connects to your time uh in youth ministry

STEVE: Okay um I have taught both high school and middle school but my current setting is at Summit High School which is a uh alternative educational uh or some people call it a continuation setting um it’s for high school kids mostly Juniors and seniors who have failed uh their freshman sophomore years and have come to us to earn or get back those credits that they’ve lost out on um hopefully to graduate on time sometimes they earn enough credit that they can return to their home schools um yeah so that’s I’m I’m the only one there who obviously can teach art but uh ALS also students in the state of California have to have a required 70 elective credits and I’m one of two people there that can do elective credits so I have a lot of kids come through uh taking art not only for state standard art stuff but for elective credits as well um my time in youth ministry I probably did that early on uh while I was still in college um so I have a lot of experience working with kids um mostly teenagers and up and so hanging out with kids is probably the one thing that has prepared me most for teaching and really my current setting um you have to remember that these kids have been in Traditional School all their life and have really kind of failed at it and so a traditional classroom setting in a Traditional School doesn’t work and so our current staff ratio is about 18 to1 um mine uh with the blessing of the Lord happens to be a little smaller than that um but it allows me to be um very one-on-one with my kids get to know my kids and a lot of the things I learned in youth ministry as far as um just being able to sit down and talk with a kid um talk about life talk about situations that they’re going through talking about you know how they even end up at our school um how those failures don’t Define who they are we all we all make mistakes but our mistake doesn’t have to Define us that we can learn from those um youth ministry really helped me in preparing for not only becoming a teacher but I really think becoming a teacher in the current role that I’m in um and also being a Christian uh sharing the love of Christ with others um you really approach these kids with a loving and caring nature because a lot of them do when you sit down and you talk with them uh everybody has a story and some of them have been through some well a lot of them have been through a lot of rough stuff that kids really shouldn’t have to deal with um and so when they when they know that somebody cares about them when they know that somebody takes the time to get to know them but listen to their story and try to to um try to be empathetic um doesn’t mean that I you know have to take it easy on them but maybe I approach them differently than I would somebody else uh even within the same classroom because I understand where they’re coming from um maybe I realize that they they have more hardships at home and so there’s more leniency there of of getting work done um on time maybe with without penalty uh because I also know that they’re working a job or something like that um because they’re taking care of siblings because their parents aren’t around that kind of thing um again I I think it’s made me more compassionate uh towards my students

JACOB: Yeah definitely and it seems like as you’re one of the only people who can do electives in your school it seems like probably most of the kids end up going through your classroom is that right

STEVE: Yeah uh depending on where the kids are at when they come in um some kids have already passed their art classes and and maybe have done okay in elective courses and they really need to hammer down on on core classes like math and English um some kids uh have you know have been putting math and English so many times that they’re just behind on electives so it is kind of Hit and Miss but I do get to see most of the kids in our school at least some point in their time at Summit

JACOB: Definitely yeah so as a Christian man working in a public school what are some challenges that you’ve faced with representing Christ in the workplace because obviously you can’t explicitly talk about that in your workplace so what are some what are some of those challenges

STEVE: Um that’s probably the biggest one is I can’t uh I can’t talk about Christianity uh unless they bring bring that up um but being an art teacher um there are ways I have ways of making them talk um a lot of art history is based around um is based around Christian artifacts Christian paintings Christian um stain glass windows things like that and so for example like when I introduce 1 perspective to students one of the best paintings for that is the last supper and so we can spend a little time talking about how all the lines in that painting that show depth go back to a single point which is one point perspective but when I intro that painting obviously I need to talk about who painted it what’s the subject matter what’s going on in the picture and it’s a it’s amazing to me how many of my students who have never studied art know exactly what’s going on in that picture and for students who have had me before or students who and this probably leads into um What Separates Me From A non-Christian teacher or or whatever um I that just the way I live my life um the way I carry myself in my classroom um you can imagine we have some some colorful and salty people uh at our school both students and teachers um but I carry the the uh the rule in my class that you’re not allowed to cuss and and I realize that for for a lot of those kids it slips out but they I make them aware uh really within the first couple of days of being in my class like hey you can’t say that hey call you on that hey and and they realized that that I live my life to a different you know the the Beat of My Own Drum there’s something different about Mr ala that kind of thing and when when all of a sudden you have that aspect and then Mr alist talking about uh the last supper or something like that and he knows um a lot of the story behind that all of a sudden there’s this connection and undoubtedly that’s when I get the questions of Mr Al are you a Christian and I’m like yeah yeah I am or they’ll ask if I’m religious and I’ll say well yeah I mean I I don’t like to say that I’m religious I I like to say that I’m I’m a Christian and then that opens up a whole a whole dialogue that I think that there in some aspects dying to have um but they’re waiting for the right person they’re waiting for a a safe non-threatening place um and they know that that they can have that dialogue within my room of course I always have somebody who you know chimes in that you know well I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in that stuff and I guess the the sarcastic nature of myself is well you know the first thing I’ll ask them is you know you don’t believe in that stuff like the Bible and they’re like yeah yeah I don’t believe in the Bible and I’ll ask him well have you ever read the Bible well no no I haven’t well then you’re not a atheist you’re just a lazy atheist because how do you believe in something that you’ve never read and every oh yeah that’s a that’s a good one Mr that’s a good one and I like no that’s that’s a legit point it’s like me saying that I hate hamburgers but I’ve never you know I’ve never had one um and and I you know I’m not going to hold it against you if you’re an atheist but but know what you believe or don’t believe and and know why you believe in it or don’t believe in it you know stand stand for for what you mean and what you say um so it just you know again going back to the art history side of it it it opens up a lot of um areas for dialogue and things like that so you can I don’t want to say you can trick kids into it but I have my ways

JACOB: Yeah and that’s that’s a that’s really creative I mean so much of of Western history at least has been shaped by Christianity even from a secular point of view so really Any teacher is teaching math or science or anything like that there’s been so many great Christian thinkers in Western history that that you can present that that’s very creative and on that um what what are some lessons that the Lord has taught you um just through teaching at a a public school and that’s those are personal lessons or lessons about showing Christ to other people

STEVE: I think um over the years um I’ve been I’ve been transformed in I think when you first start in teaching you’re all about uh your curriculum your classroom management that kind of thing and rightly so but I I’ve learned over the years that kids and we say this all the time in in teaching and coaching that kids don’t care how much they know you know until they know how much you care and when I take the time to get to know my students when I get to to put my guard down a little bit I know that some some teachers are are very guarded um I just they they realize that that the Mr Elma who is in their classroom is the same Mr okma who they’re going to run into on the streets he’s the same guy who’s coaching a football game on a Friday night um they have a hard time believing that you know oh he doesn’t yeah he doesn’t cuss here but maybe he does you know In the Heat of the Moment of a football game or when he’s at home or what and I’m like no I’m I’m the same person um when when they see the authenticity in that and and I think that for me too I I just learn to be authentic uh throughout my life there’s no facade there’s nothing I need to put up um I don’t get offended by their questions I don’t sometimes people get offended when you ask about their home life or their wife or their kids or whatever and and I see the the relevance in kids wanting to know that and so many kids nowadays grow up in such horrible situations and and horrible Families how are they supposed to know what that looks like if you’re not willing to tell them um so I’ve learned to be authentic I’ve learned to be open I’ve learned to be um you know just I don’t know caring um and I’ve also learned that lessons that I’ve learned in life um you know people will say well you know you you went through that trial that tribulation or whatever because it’s you know you’re going to see it pay off later on down the road or what and and there’s there’s a lot of Truth to that I think of um right after my freshman year in college my mom had a brain aneurysm that that like wiped her out and um she was the one and I was super close to I wasn’t really super close to my dad and that in the moment I could see where that situation brought my dad and I close together but 20 years later I can see where that situation um God allowed me to grow from that in being able to relate to my students um the the trials and tribulations that went along with that along with her for rehabilitation the money that my parents had set aside from me uh for college went to all of her rehabs so then it it forced me uh to work my way through college um and so I can relate to my students who have to work uh and do school at the same time uh and think man this is a this is this is a hard situation this is yeah hey I know I’ve I’ve been there I’ve done that um I can relate to students who have lost lost a parent um albeit for me you know later on in life but it doesn’t make that loss any easier um I’ve dealt with you know kind of catastrophic sickness um and and the rehabilitation Road and that kind of thing and so again I can relate on a lot of different levels to those kids and sometimes being okay was just saying you know I I don’t have the answers but I know that through patience and through prayer and through just just Faith sometimes it’s okay to not have all the answers that you just trust that this is going to work out uh and it’s going to work out for the better um that that sometimes that’s just the encouragement that they need and and then there are times that you don’t think that you’ve made any difference at all you know you you’ve taught them a little bit bit about art and and uh they’ve made some cool stuff in your class and and they’re out the door and then I don’t know through through modern technology they’re they’re able to get a hold of you uh via email or Instagram or something like that and a kid that that you never thought that you’d ever hear from again uh send you a message from out of the blue and says man you you really made an impact in my life the the there was one instance where you said this or you did that that just really had a profound impact on my life and I’m sitting there thinking I did like I don’t even remember doing that um so you never know you never know how God’s going to use you you never know um what’s going to what’s going to come out of your mouth that I like to say is is Guided by the Holy Spirit that’s my prayer every morning when I walk in is okay Lord use me fill me full of the Holy Spirit just let him talk um and that way with colleagues too you know I I I think the authenticity is not sometimes we’re this way with kids and this way with colleagues because they’re older um who I am is who I am and uh hopefully the love of Christ is is what pours out of me and uh and is what people see um I know that kids and the people I work with have been jaded um by those Christians who are on their Soap Box saying hey repent I’m a Christian look at me um and then a month later you’re looking at them thinking that’s not very christian-like um I I’ll be the first to tell them that you know I’m not perfect uh there’s I don’t know if there’s a day that goes by that I’m not praying for forgiveness for things that I’ve said things that I’ve done things that I’ve thought you know opportunities missed uh but again I think that just speaks back to the authenticity of it

JACOB: Yeah definitely so if you had to go back started all over 25 years ago as a teacher what would you want to do differently what what advice would you give to someone starting out and what maybe what resources you have now that you wish you could have gone back and had in the beginning

STEVE: You know looking back on it all I I don’t know that I would do anything differently because I have the advantage of looking back over 25 years and seeing and seeing God’s hand work through it all um so it would be hard for me to to say oh I would I would really change this or I would really change that um I you know I I can say that like teaching Middle School was not my favorite because they’re middle schoolers um but those in those tough times uh in dealing with with kids um I had you know really good colleagues and a really good support group and and that challenged me as a teacher and and grew me as a teacher um so I you know looking back on 25 years I don’t know what I would change um as far as advice going forward um and I guess I would approach it like as a Christian in a public school um the hardest thing I think is is being true to yourself um being a Christian in a public school is not you you’re going to be it’s sad to say one of the you um you’re going to have a lot of people who who do not agree with you um on on certain subjects that that that Christians believe in um you’re going to face a lot of ridicule um because of things that you believe in and and I would just say make sure that you’ve got a good support um network of friends uh family you don’t have a you don’t have to have a lot of people but you have to have you know really good ones that that are there for you um and then don’t go too long without recharging your batteries don’t think that you can do it on your own um I guess maybe a part of that that friend group or whatever is make sure you’ve got a solid Church home make sure that you’ve got a pastor who’s really pouring into you um and it doesn’t have to be on a onetoone basis but I know that our pastor um just you know speaks the truth preaches the Bible um and that’s that’s what I need to hear to charge my batteries every week um challenges me as a Christian uh to to dig deeper and then you know doing that making sure that your relationship with with uh with Christ is solid spending time in his word spending time in prayer I spend a lot of time in prayer um because you’re going to need that as as you stand firm for what you believe in and then again um don’t feel like you you know some people are soapbox people they can stand on their soap box and and just preach it out and and I there’s there’s you know spots in the world for for those type of people um that’s not me I I I’m just um I don’t know the Silent Assassin for for Christ you know I I don’t have to I don’t have to beat my chest and that kind of thing I just you know just live it out um You Can Be an Effective uh an effective Christian and an effective Christian in a public school um just by showing the love of Christ doesn’t mean that you you know you have to preach it just just love on people and uh there’s a lot of people out there nowadays that that speaks volumes you know a lot of people out there who are broken um who need to be loved

JACOB: Yeah well Steve thank you so much appreciate you doing this interview with me