Keeshon's Story — Keeshon Washington — Ep. 047

Hello everybody, welcome back to another episode of Anabaptist Perspectives. I'm here in York, Pennsylvania, with Keyshawn Washington, and you're a teacher here at this school, Tidings of Peace. We're in one of the classrooms right here. Can you just introduce yourself, describe a little bit of your past and just how you got involved with the school, and what's your role here? Yeah, so I came into Tidings of Peace through our Bible school program.

Our kids' club, as people call it, I like to call it Bible school because I'd like if they would learn something. And clubs, you don't have to learn, you just have to party. So I came in when I was nine years old, and I got invited by a man named Jonathan Algire, and he knocked on my door. And when he came to my door, he was a white man in the neighborhood where white people didn't belong. And so when he came to my door, I opened it up and immediately shut the door on him. I'm like, "I don't want anything to do with you." And as he— Didn't even say anything to him, just shut the door?

Nothing. I grew up in a culture where white people were dangerous, and I was taught to stay away from them. Ironically, my mom's white, and I grew up with her, but she's probably the only white person in the neighborhood within a few blocks. And so he was dangerous to me, but my dad, being wiser and older and knowing that you can't just slam a door on every white person that comes to the door, he went and took care of it. So I went back to my video games. I'm having a good time. And he comes back in and says, "They're going to church." And that word to me was a cuss word. Church was not a good thing to me.

I had gone to church a year or two before, and it was a Baptist church in Red Lion. And they'd come in and bus 100 kids from the city to Red Lion, and we'd have a big mega church-style church where they would have you come in, be saved and baptized over and over again. So I've probably been saved 100 times in my life.

And I realized my life wasn't getting any better, and so I thought they were all hypocrites. And so I believed there was a God because it made sense to me that there would be. Evolution made no sense to me, and I thought that was a fairy tale. And so I believed there was a God. I just could not stand him. I thought it was a white man's God. And so I went home for several months despising and hating God as a nine-year-old, as much as I could at that age.

And so when he invited me, I was completely opposed to it. And what ended up happening is I went because Dad made me. At this time, Mom and Dad were on drugs, and so they had an addiction, and getting me out of the home was advantageous.

And I went, and I got kicked out on purpose. I went in, I started yelling all kinds of cuss words, and I just got kicked out. But Jonathan never gave up on me. He kept making me come back, and he just, in my childhood, seemed as someone who kept pursuing me and never giving up on me, even though I deserved it. You know, we make rules at our kids' clubs about, "You can't disrespect a teacher. You can't do these things." But Jonathan had a clear calling from the Holy Spirit, it seemed. "You need to go and pursue this kid."

And so eventually, more people started pouring into my life. There were a lot of short-term missionaries that helped me throughout the years, but one man in particular that really stuck with me was Austin Schenk. And he just really discipled me.

He was my spiritual father, and he just brought me up to a point where I could sustain a faith and a relationship with Jesus. And from there, I interacted with the school, and I really wanted to go to the school. Really, really wanted to go to the school. And for years, I begged my mom, begged my mom. And I was 16, and my mom and dad got into another fight, and they fought every day. You know, they're drug addicts. Money and drug addicts means fighting and bickering and potential danger. And so I'd walk home, and every day I came in the door, there was a shouting match. Things were being thrown in the air, and my only escape was the Schenks or the Mennonites or the Christians in my life at the time.

And so I was there all the time. They became my family. I live there today.

And I went to my mom and I said, "I'm going to drop out if you don't let me go to Tidings of Peace." And she didn't really have a choice. She let me go. And I graduated a year early. I came, I was able to transfer some credits, and I did the work to graduate early. And then I had a year in between where I walked around and tried to find things to do. I was a principal aide and just, yeah, tried to find fulfilling things to do. I got a few jobs in the government with the parks and running batting cages across the city. And found out what it meant to work and be an adult by myself and moved in with the Schenks as well.

And one of the things my mom was worried about in me going to a church-run school, right? A church-run private school. It's we're suspicious because we offer financial aid to everybody. Private schools don't do that. Private schools have stipulations. You have to be smart. You have to be normal. You can't have defects. You need to be a normal person, and you need to fit in our culture. Whereas we try to provide a culture that adapts to them and that makes it so that children in urban communities can be served and loved. And so she was suspicious about a school that claimed that I could get a good education at a private school cost or not a private school cost.

I could get a good education and basically go for free if you put it all in perspective and still wind up as well off as I would in the public school system. And so our promise was that if I go, I have to go to college. And so Faith Builders became my college. I went to Faith Builders for two years following that year in between. And I went for teacher apprenticing, and I came back, and I'm in my second year. So that's what I got into. Yeah, teaching. And I went into education with the desire. I didn't want to teach at first. I like to talk, but teaching to me is an art. And I'm a better—I told one of my leaders at Faith Builders, "I'm a better public speaker than I am a teacher."

And he said, "Well, if you're good, you'll do both. Every day you have a chance to do public speaking." And I think that's what drove me to wanting to do it, is I get to impact these 10 kids, these 10 students of mine.

I get to impact their lives every morning till three o'clock. And I give them all kinds of speeches, and I make it up on the spot, and they love it. And it helps me to have passion. And the reason I got into education, especially in the city, is my heart for inner-city youth. I've always had a deep—ever since I became a Christian, I thought of the hundreds of people that I know that don't have what I have. And it's not about possessions or wealth or anything except for Jesus. And it became very clear to me that Jesus is what everybody around me needed, and yet nobody had. And I look back at the dozens of people who have come in and out of our church over the years and, you know, no matter what skin color, background, whatever, chose Jesus or chose Christianity, chose the church, but walked away.

And they're no longer walking to faith. And I've been asked, "What is it that kept you around?" And I said, "Well, the reality is the Mennonites didn't keep me around. It was Jesus that kept me around." And because of our church's vibrancy and the people in my church that loved Jesus, I knew these were the people that I needed to be around. Jesus called me to York, and he was going to keep me in York. And so that is why I do what I do. I want my students to eventually fall in love with Jesus. And if they can do that, they don't even really need me. You know, I'll be glad to help them.

But if they can have Jesus, Satan can't throw things at them that they won't be able to overcome because Jesus is so much more powerful. And so I'm a teacher because that's the most—that's how I can get the closest to these kids.

Other than that, I can only contact them outside of school, and that limits me. But if I can be their teacher and I can be someone who can help guide them to Jesus every day, it's a golden opportunity.

It's the best job in the world. That's pretty cool. It sounds like you're pretty passionate about it. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And you've been teaching—you said teaching here two years, correct? Yeah, this is technically my third year on staff, but second year teaching in a homeroom. What grades? Fifth to seventh grade this year. I was going to have sixth and seventh, but we had a few fifth graders. We had a new teacher come in, and she had 11 students, and I had nine. And they're like, "Wait a second.

You're more experienced. You should have the students." So my first year, I only started with six, and that came to eight. And this time, I went from 11 to 10. So I have 10 students in my room. And we actually have—we're getting a new building, which I'm sure Clayton talked about that. But we're getting a new building. And my students are the most excited about it because we have class in our church fellowship hall. And we have to—so before I came here, I had to put my classroom away. And I put the desk up, and I put them on the wall, cleared out the room for Bible school to happen tonight, which Bible school is the ministry that brought me to Jesus.

And so, yeah, my students have to put up with that every Thursday. And then Friday, again, we pull them down again. And before we leave for the weekend, we have to put them up for church. And so we're really excited about what God's doing in our ministry through this new building because we're able to provide these students with an environment that is so much more different than what they've experienced. And my students, they're not fun. They're not quite young adults yet. They're still kid-like, but they're also not little kids. And so they're super excited about it. And they just can't believe. And they ask me all the time, like, "How in the world are we going to go from this building to that building?"

And I said, "It's Jesus. Can you think of any other explanation other than we serve a God that really wants us to have this building?" And they're like, "No." And I think that they can carry that to life. They can carry the rest of their life saying, "There is no way that there can't be a God because God did this for us when we went to school at Tidings of Peace." And if our classroom can be filled with the Spirit and filled with Jesus just working in their lives every day, there will never be a question of if there is a God.

The next question, and typically the hardest question, is, "Will I follow him?" And of course, that's more difficult than saying, "Is there or is there not a God?" One is common sense, and then one is a heart commitment, a surrender that there is a force doing everything he can to make sure you don't do it.

I don't think Satan does as much work trying to convince us that God does not exist. I think Satan is in the business of trying to convince us, trying to steer us away from him and not have a relation with him. Because once I have Jesus, then I'm empowered. Jesus is going to change my life. But if I just know of him, then I don't really have anything more than the demons. I don't have anything more than the evil forces.

And so every day, I want to instill in my students' lives that Satan is your enemy. He's out to destroy you. And in order to be free from that bondage, that sin, that generational sin that they likely go home to, you need to cling to Jesus. And I think that that building, more than a resource, more than an awesome place for us to teach and play basketball and other carnal things that are awesome but not that important, is a testimony of that building came from God. And if they can see that, they can change their life. Yeah, really can. It's almost like, you know, we don't know where all these people will end up, but we do know we do have them for this moment in time where you can help steer them and show, you know, there is another option.

There is a better way, and that's Jesus. Yeah, that's really cool. What would you say is the most rewarding part of what you do? Clearly, you enjoy what you're doing, which is really awesome. But what would you say is the most rewarding part?

You know, I think because of the grade range that I teach, you know, they come in as children. A 10-year-old is a 9-year-old is a child, you know, fifth grade, and they leave seventh graders after two or three years of me having them or them having me, whichever one you want to call it. And I get to see them go from childhood to young adulthood. I tell my students, "When you leave my classroom, you are a young adult. And until then, you can make mistakes that you can't make upstairs. Upstairs is secondary. So you make mistakes here that I forgive that Mr. Burkholder will not, right? You're not a young adult yet, but you will be."

And so it's like a process that I can see them grow from probably innocence in some ways. Now, living in the city, you're not innocent very long. But a level of innocence to, "I've got to make a choice." And I get to be there in those years to plant those seeds. Now, I'm not likely to have altar calls in my classroom. I'm not likely to see a crying confession of faith in my room. But I can have trust that the things that I am saying, the things that I am teaching them are leading them to Jesus. And I really, really hope that when they leave my room, they're closer or I've chosen to follow him.

But that's the most fulfilling part of my work, is I get to see them closer to commitment than when they came. And really teaching for me, whether it's math or English or science, social studies, which is my favorite, by the way. I love teaching history because I think it shapes them the most. They get to see themselves in history, whereas math is just, it's math.

My room hates math, and I agree with them.

But using those to point to a God that has brought all this order and has taught us all these things, has given us language, has given us math. And so some of them get tired of how much I talk about Jesus. But to me, that's really the only—the primary motivation for education for me is, "Do you see how awesome God is? Can you see? You just solved that math, and you thought you could never do it. And you may just say, 'Well, I'm just learning it. I'm just, you know, I just got better at it,' or 'You're just a good teacher.'" I'm like, "Look, I know myself, and I can't do math. But somehow, sitting here suffering through this, we figured it out."

And I think that there is a greater power in us working over us that loves us and wants relationship with us that wants you to succeed, student. And so those conversations happen before every test. They happen during the hard times. And I'm a teacher who loves hard moments, things I can't figure out, because then I can say, "Oh, boy. Well, we better pray about it. We better think this through." And students who don't believe in God can see God work.

And that's just incredible. And as much as I know he's going to work, as much as I know God will work here, I'm still shocked. I'm still surprised. We're at the end of our quarter, and there are students who are finishing with honor roll that I was prepared to give parents phone calls like, "We got to figure something out because this is not working."

And I was doing report cards today, and I'm like, "This is incredible. They have honor roll." It almost like something was wrong. I had to see if the names were switched. And I'm just amazed myself. And if I can be amazed as someone—if I can be amazed as someone who has been a Christian for a decade or so, or so, over a decade, who's been a Christian for a while, then how are they going to be impacted by the awe and the power of God?

And I think that that's our ultimate goal. Our vision is giving hope for a brighter future through Christian education. And that hope, without saying, is obviously Jesus. And they don't recognize it at first, but that is what is shaping them. They don't even know it yet. And I hope that one day they see it, that it's not just, "We provide you good snacks. We give you good programs. We give you work to torture you with eight hours a day, and then you go home."

We really are seeing something greater at work here. Your worldview building. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're building a worldview for them that has God in it, a respect for the divine. Definitely. That's pretty awesome. And it's missing in all their friends. So we have a bunch of guys over there right now in the guy's house. They're probably waiting for me, wanting me to feed them. And the ones in our school can have that impact. And you notice the change in their behavior. But there are some that are not there, that have not been exposed near as much to—one of the guys calls it God talk. You know, we do a lot of God talk in school.

I'm like, "You're right. We do."

And you can see the worldview changing them, even at a young age, just in their preteens, early teens. They are being shaped. And if it's not for Satan doing everything to rip them away, there's so much potential in them that can flourish and do way more than we're doing.

You know, we don't want to make them little Keyshawns, or little Claytons, or little Austins, little Reagans. We want God to empower them to do things better than we could do. We want them to be little Christ. And there are no limits to that. Jesus has called people to do things far greater than what I'm doing in this school. And so I tell my students, "If you can be greater than me, then go do it." But it won't happen without Jesus.

But if you can get him and you can love him, he may take you to do amazing things. We learn about—so our theme this year is Becoming Remarkable Christians. We're covering stories of Christians who have, we would call them remarkable, worthy of talking about, have done amazing things because God has empowered them to do so. We talk about Bruce Olson and Nicky Cruz and John Ramirez and all these people who have done amazing things through Jesus.

And we tell them, we have the audacity to stand in chapel and say, "Jesus could do even more through you. Jesus could do greater things through you than Nicky Cruz, than Nick Vujicic, and than all these great people who we think are awesome. Jesus could actually do even greater things through you." And they don't believe us yet, but I hope that one day they can prove it right, that they can prove that that's actually true.

That's powerful. That's really neat. That's something that's very important to instill. Yeah, while you still have the chance. Yeah. So you've been talking a fair amount about school and your passion for that. Now, let's broaden it out a little and see. And can you dialogue a bit about how the Anabaptists can get involved in ministries in cities? And then also, what conflicts can they expect to have if they do that? And what's the best way forward for the Anabaptist people? So I like what I see in a lot of Anabaptist missions. I interned at Fairview in Reading for six weeks while I was at Faith Builders.

And I have enjoyed going to events with urban themes and networking with different ministries who do that. I enjoy speaking at these different clubs and sharing with youth from different cities. And what I've encountered is a lot of them encounter the same issues.

And I think that we, as Anabaptists, have to be humble and realize, or at least identify, what it is we're here to do. And if we enter these urban communities like the stereotypical missionary overseas, where we're coming in to build homes and remodel homes and provide fresh water. And, you know, I admire those things. Jesus commanded us to do those things. There's nothing wrong with that.

But we really need to identify what it is we're here to do. And that is, we're pointing them to Jesus who can do what we can't. We cannot change their circumstances. Now, I'm an example of which God used the church to do that. I moved in with the Shanks, and I was discipled out of my environment in a way.

And that's rare and won't happen to everyone. And so what are we really here to do? And it's not just to change circumstances. It's to point to Jesus. And it's to let them relate to him. And I think that we have—what I've noticed in some people who work in urban communities is they're short-term missionaries, but they're making long-term missionary moves. And so they are getting close with these young people. They are winning their hearts, and then they're gone.

And for years, I was bitter about that. I was like, "How are we ever going to be effective if these Mennonites keep moving in and leaving?" Like, and I got to hear from some of the kids in the city here how upset they were that so-and-so left. And like, "Why did they have to go?" Like, what? And they just—they investigate. They want to know where they went and what they're doing. And they want them to come back so bad. And I see several issues there. One, they fell in love with the person and not Jesus.

And so they came to church. They maybe even put a covering on. They did all these things, but they didn't have Jesus, and so it didn't last. And so these people here in the city are asking some questions about us. They're asking, "How long will they be here?" They're asking, "How committed are they to me?" They're asking, "What do they really want?" They're asking, "Are they doing this because they love me or because they want me to perform a certain way for them?" And I'm happy to say that I come out on a good end to all these questions. I'm willing to defend our church and say, "I love what we do, and I have a lot of confidence in the people here."

But we need to ask ourselves the same questions. We need to ask ourselves, "How committed am I to this place? What really can I do? Am I humble, or am I doing this out of conceit or pity? Am I driven by Jesus, and am I willing to say, 'Okay, God, have you called me here long-term? Have you called me here to invest in a long-term way?'" So we have different ministries here. We have a Big Brother program where we tell people, "Don't join this program unless you're going to be here, and you're going to be able to have a lifelong commitment with this guy." And you don't have to be here for life. I mean, my little brother's in Florida right now.

He moved to Florida. I still interact with him, right? But it took years of being there for him when he needed me for him to even love me. Because love isn't cheap for a lot of these kids. And when it is, it's dangerous because it means there's some attachment problems. The issue with elevating the staff member that is surrounded by kids who they just met is that's really a sign of a lot of bad things. Not from the staff member necessarily, that they're bad people because they're loving kids too much. No, Jesus loved kids. I can imagine Jesus in our programs just surrounded by kids. And we'd sit there, "Why is he letting them do that?

Hey, that's against the rules, and Jesus is just so wise and beyond the rules," right? I'm a product of someone who came to Jesus because the rules were ignored. I was on all kinds of field trips I shouldn't have been on because of my behavior. But really, what transcended that was a love for me that went beyond rules and beyond structure. And don't get me wrong. I've been to some programs that need more structure. But it's not that we have a cut-and-dry, cookie-cutter way of doing this. Every city's different. But the reason why it's dangerous to see that, to see kids just latching on, is because it's not normal for a kid that's known you for 30 minutes to embrace you like you're their father or their mother.

And I think that's an example of how we need to be humble and wanting to know, wanting to learn. And we don't have to become—we don't have to all go get training and sensitivity training and all this kind of stuff that, you know, the world tells us to go get. But there's something admirable in someone who says, "I want to be the best lover I can be." And I don't know how to love these people that well very yet, right? You know, love is a language we all understand. But you can show that love better if you know a little bit about the people. And it's bothered me throughout the years how I've seen a lot of people who have huge hearts, swelling hearts for this city, but are not ever going to go past a certain level with them because they don't care to actually learn.

Whether it—you know, it's not necessarily conceit, but there could be several things at play. Whether it's, "Well, I see myself elsewhere in a couple of years, so I don't want to get too involved," or just carelessness, like, "I'm just going to plunge in and go change lives." And then they leave, and whatever they have done, if they've done anything, is they're leaving with it. And for us to identify what we are when we come in, are we a short-term missionary? Great. Thanks for coming.

Here are your roles. Here is your responsibility, and here's what you can do. And whenever Jesus takes us beyond those regular responsibilities, well, praise the Lord. Jesus is working here. Like, if you're there for a week and a kid makes a confession that's heartfelt, we shouldn't go and subtract that and say, "Nope, someone who's been here longer than you should have done that with them." No, Jesus will work when he wants to. But we need to be humble and say, "I don't know how long I'm here," which is often how it is. I'm just here for a year, maybe a couple of months, or I have no idea. I made no commitments. And I have no idea how long I'm going to be here.

And we have to tread with a prayerful spirit to say, "God, that means I need your help. And I really need to know how to address these things." Instead of what tends to be a reckless attitude of, "It's just about coming in and loving." And I'm like, "Well, technically, perhaps." But coming with some knowledge too.

And so I've been—the people I'm closest to that work in urban ministries are people who either have the experience to back up what they do, who have the experience to really know what they're coming across, or people who have a learner spirit.

And the irony in our ministry here in this city is that there are some people who are wanting a learner spirit from the inner city people, but are not demonstrating it to them. And they think that's hypocrisy. And the biggest way to lose respect in this city is hypocrisy.

You don't ever want to disrespect anyone in the city. It's a big issue. And if you really want to—if you really want to impress people in the city, be consistent. I am consistently here for any of these boys whenever they need me. And that is a calling that people envy, and I get it because I've been called to be here for them when they need me. Not everybody's there. But if you're not that way, there are other ways for you to be effective in ministry in the city. There are other things. Even if it's just making food, be faithful in that. Because food's important to people. It might be their only meal. And that is God's work.

Why are we so disillusioned to think that if we're not the ones that are in the trenches, whatever that means, that we're not actually doing God's work? And so as much as I want short-term missionaries to think through what they do, I have a greater distaste for people who are against short-term missionaries. Because I think that Jesus wants us to be active. He wants us to be working. And whether that's in a once-a-month Bible Kids ministry or kids' club ministry, or it's a two-year, five-year, ten-year commitment, or what I hope is a lifetime commitment here for me, it needs to be a humble leading, a humbleness to be able to be led by the Spirit to say, "God, if you want me to go be a cry cushion for this girl, then I'm here to do that.

Even if I'm only here a week, I sense that Jesus wants me to go do this." And it's not just a reckless abandon that we so often go into interactions with, that confidence that can be so good yet so damaging. And so I think that's the voice of many young people as well in the city that they want to know if you're going to actually be here. And if you're not, I find that they don't hold it against you.

But they're not going to want to get super, super close if they know you're not going to be there when mom and dad hit them or when mom and dad aren't there for them. And so high-level discipleship means you're there.

And if we're wanting high-level discipleship, we have to have high-level commitment. And I'm aware that Jesus can transcend all of those normals. But we ought to come in with that type of attitude. I'm here for a week on an SMBI mission's involvement. Well, thanks for coming. Here are the things that you can do.

Let Jesus lead you. Or I'm here for however many years to teach. That's wonderful. You're going to be able to do a lot of things because there's so much need. But don't do any of it for yourself. Don't do any of it without the Spirit's leading because Satan, I think, can sometimes use ourselves against us, can use our good intentions and have us toppling over the mountain. We think we're progressing, and then all of a sudden we get there and we find out we haven't really done anything except maybe hurt someone or hurt ourselves. And I think that the healing of that, the fixing of that problem is going to be a humble spirit, one that I work on, one that I need myself.

Having grown up here, I'm sort of like, "Oh, Kishan, you've got experience. You know these kids." And I'm like, "Yeah, but I learn new things every day." And the generations change by year. These kids are in the things that I wasn't in when I was a kid. And we all have to learn. We all do, whether you're here for 30 years or for three hours, really.

And I just would really like to see whether they're in Reading or New York or Harrisburg or Arizona or California, no matter where these other ministries are, if they can encourage any staff, any leaders to remain humble and say, "We don't have it figured out. We may be comfortable, but we really are at war here. And we need the Spirit's leading to tell us who we are." And that may change depending on our surroundings.

And that's the price of battle. That's the price of war because we're literally telling God, "Whatever you wish." And we don't realize just how vulnerable we are in that position. Some of us love it, and some of us dread it. But if you're going to be working with inner city youth in America, you better learn to love it. You better learn to love the surprise factor that God's going to bring. Because at any given time, whether it's two in the morning, God can have a heart-knocking teenager on your door that needs love.

And if we restrict ourselves, if we say, "But I have a schedule." That's true. But what if God's telling you something? What if God's trying to say, "You've been wanting interaction. Here it is." And like I tell my students, God tends to change our desires instead of actually meeting our desires.

I've been taught by many people that I need to pray for God to meet my desires. And so far in life, He's just changed them. He hasn't actually given me what I want. And so that's what I think we need to pray for, is that we will be brought to the right things. We will desire the right things.