One of the aspects characteristic of NCA is the fluidity of the staff. Every year we have new\u00a0teachers, and my goal as a journalist is to help the student body get to know and appreciate our\u00a0new teachers more.<\/p>\n
I learned so much about Ms. Pasker just from the few questions I asked her. I hope you’re able to do the same. So, without further ado, the interview.<\/p>\n
PETER: Your roots and background all both keys that open doors to relate to students. What was your\u00a0early life like? What would you say were the biggest influences on who you are today?<\/strong> PETER: Everyone at Nicaragua Christian Academy has a story of before they began attending. How did\u00a0you know you wanted to be a teacher, and how did you end up here in Latin America?<\/strong> PETER: What is your favorite part about Nicaragua and teaching here?<\/strong> PETER: How have you seen God working in your life before and since you made the move from the US\u00a0to Central America?<\/strong> PETER: One way for students to be able to relate is through common interests. What do you like to do in\u00a0your spare time?<\/strong> Is there a teacher you’d like me to interview? Is there a question that you’d like to ask a specific teacher? Email us at ncaeagleseye@gmail.com, or come talk to any one of us! If you’d like to write an article, come tell us about it! We’d love to see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the second installment of the series, Peter Edgar visits his interview with Ms. Pasker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[180,182,191],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-archive","format-standard","hentry","category-student-life","tag-influences","tag-interview-2","tag-ms-pasker"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nMS. PASKER: I grew up on a small farm in Iowa, just outside the capital city of Des Moines. On the farm, my\u00a0grandparents raised corn and soy beans and my parents have planted a vineyard and raised goats\u00a0and chickens. I love my home \u2013 unlike some Iowa stereotypes suggest, our farm is made up of\u00a0rolling hills and lots of trees. It\u2019s beautiful!
\nI grew up Catholic and went to public school through high school, as did my younger sister and\u00a0brother. I am very thankful for both these experiences! Although I no longer attend a Catholic\u00a0church, I love what it brings to the universal Church. I have learned many things from this tradition,\u00a0especially reverence for the holiness of God and the importance of listening for His voice. Similarly,\u00a0although I now work at a private school, I\u2019m glad for a public education that taught me to interact\u00a0with people from many different walks of life in love and respect.
\nMy parents were definitely the biggest influence, besides Jesus, on who I am today. Some of my\u00a0earliest memories are of bedtime stories ending with songs and prayers. Both my parents became\u00a0Christians later in life and were eager to read the Bible and grow. They passed their desire to know\u00a0God on to my siblings and I, and the Holy Spirit has taken it from there!<\/p>\n
\nMS. PASKER: I always wanted to be a teacher growing up (it probably has something to do with being the oldest\u00a0and enjoying bossing younger people around). By the time I graduated high school, though, I\u00a0wanted to be anything BUT a teacher. I had seen too many teachers disrespected and burnt-out to\u00a0want any of that for myself! A few years into college, though, I began to remember my earlier desire\u00a0and to see that I was actually good at teaching! I switched my major from history to education, and\u00a0the rest is\u2026 well\u2026 history!
\nHow I ended up in Nicaragua is, as is often the case I think, quite the story. I first came through\u00a0Christian Reformed World Missions in 2011 for a summer. I stayed with the family of one of my\u00a0good friends, Wendy Gomez (her mom is our very own Ivania Matamoros, NCA Business Manager). God\u00a0did a lot of healing in my heart that summer through the love of my host family and opened my eyes\u00a0to a foreign way to see the world \u2013 one that wasn\u2019t American. Since that summer, I\u2019ve wanted to\u00a0return. In 2014, I had the opportunity to return to join the staff at Tesoros de Dios, a ministry just\u00a0down the road, but felt lead to say no and stay in Des Moines. After that I was sure that the door to\u00a0Nica was closed. But through a series of unexpected, very fortunate events, I saw the opening for an\u00a0English teacher at NCA and felt an invitation from the Holy Spirit to go for it. I applied and was hired\u00a0in March!<\/p>\n
\nMS. PASKER: Wow. This is a tough question. My favorite part of teaching is the people I get to see every day. Now\u00a0don\u2019t get big heads, because we\u2019re all aware you\u2019re not perfect, but\u2026
\nmy students are GREAT! Really, you guys are smart, funny, kind, and hard-working, and you make\u00a0coming to work totally worth it.
\nI love many things about Nicaragua \u2013 hugs and kisses to say hello and goodbye, no below-zero\u00a0weather, volcanoes out the window, church in the mountains\u2026 and especially the way people, not\u00a0work or productivity, come first. I also just love that God loves Nicaragua and has plans to continue\u00a0restoring and growing her. He hasn\u2019t let me in on any of the details or anything, but I know it\u2019s\u00a0going to be beautiful.<\/p>\n
\nMS. PASKER: Shucks, where to start? One thing He often works on with me is perfectionism. Until college, almost\u00a0everything came easily for me: academics, sports, music, relationships. I was used to being among\u00a0the best at everything I did. That changed in college. All of a sudden, things got harder and I wasn\u2019t\u00a0always succeeding, even when I gave my best effort. I felt like I wasn\u2019t good enough anymore, that\u00a0my coach, my boss, my professors, my friends were all disappointed in me. God used this to start to\u00a0break down the lie that my worth comes from my performance. Little by little, He showed me how\u00a0much He loved me no matter what I could or couldn\u2019t do. This is something all Christians know in\u00a0their heads, but, for me anyway, it took a quite a while to get to my heart.
\nAnd He\u2019s still teaching me! So many days, I want to be as awesome at teaching as the experienced\u00a0teachers I see around me. Then Jesus has to remind me that what I\u2019m able to do right now is good,\u00a0and that the rest will come with patience.<\/p>\n
\nMS. PASKER: I love to read! Some favorites are Black<\/em> by Ted Dekker, Ella Enchanted<\/em> by Gail Carson Levin, Portrait of\u00a0a Lady<\/em> by Henry James.
\nMovies are great! Especially The Hunger Games<\/em> (all of them), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/em>, and The\u00a0Princess Bride<\/em>.
\nI also love running, listening to indie\/folk music, drinking hot drinks, and climbing trees.<\/p>\n