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“Do I have to do the pray?”

The teenage boy who asked that question had been halfway through his admissions test when he looked up from the computer and added, “I don’t know the words.”

“That’s okay,” Carol, an administrator at this Christian school in Spain, told him. “When we pray, we’re just talking to God. It’s a conversation.”

Looking thoughtful, the boy returned to his test. He had just arrived from China with his parents. Soon, he glanced up again. “I don’t know the rules of the Bible.”

“The Bible isn’t just rules,” Carol explained. “It’s about how to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.”

When he spoke for a third time, his voice dropped. “Maybe someday, I could pray. And maybe, God would answer me.”

Detours to Spain

Long before becoming a cross-cultural worker with TMS Global, Carol was a school social worker in Virginia. Her husband, Donald, was a silversmith and an African American historical re-enactor at Colonial Williamsburg.

Then, God called them to Paraguay where, for 13 years, Donald built relationships with local silversmiths and Carol became involved with Christian education, first as a social worker, then as a teacher, and later as an administrator. A detour back to the U.S. led to an unexpected conversation with TMS Global’s Jim Ramsay. “We need you in Spain,” he told them.

Spain cost twice as much as Paraguay. That would mean more months of fundraising in the U.S. before they could return to the field.

Another detour. The time in the U.S. became a training ground where Carol earned a doctorate in Christian school administration, focusing her dissertation research on the worldviews of Spanish Christian educators. By God’s grace, she never took out student loans.

Without having planned for it, Carol now held the ideal skills and credentials to serve in Spain.

Local workers were starting Christian schools for Spanish families and expatriates. They needed help. “Nothing about my path made sense,” she reflected later, “until I saw how God used every detour to prepare us for this.”

Donald joined her, providing social studies education rooted in his work as a historical actor and artisan. A three-year-old Christian elementary school was adding on secondary education. Donald and Carol were the perfect couple to help navigate the complex curriculum and accreditation process needed for the Community of Madrid to issue its stamp of approval.

Carol remembered how God had given her a Ph.D. with no loans, so she knew to rely on faith that God would send students and teachers.

Students From Secure Locations Are Coming to Spain

Tariq* applied completely on his own.

At 17, he had researched schools across Spain, chose the school where Carol and Donald serve, navigated the visa process alone, found a guardian, traveled by himself, and arrived three weeks after classes started.

In his admissions interview, Carol asked the obvious first question, “You know we’re a Christian school, right?”

“Yes,” Tariq said. “I want to learn about Christianity.”

Back in his home country of Saudi Arabia, Tariq had attended a large, prestigious high school that featured two swimming pools, full athletic complexes, and basically, everything a tiny Christian school in Spain doesn’t have. But he chose to come here.

In apologetics class, he asks tough questions that keep his teacher (and his fellow students) deeply engaged with their search for truth.

“He’s hungry,” Carol said. “He’s searching.”

So is the young Chinese student who had worried about “doing the pray.” Only after he started school did the staff learn he struggled with a severe video-game addiction. He kept disappearing into the bathroom with a hidden phone. Since his mother spoke neither English nor Spanish, calls home proved unfruitful. Eventually Carol held a video conference with his father who had traveled abroad for business. The father agreed that his son needed an intervention.

Since then, the boy has begun to engage. He stays in class now, leaving his phone where it belongs. Carol suspects he might even pray sometimes.

The Next Detour

School enrollment has grown from 36 students to 130 as the school adds one new grade each year. Soon, faculty and students will move into a newly renovated building offered by a secular science and technology group. They see the academic value of what the school is doing, even if they do not yet understand the deeper impact of Christian community.

The students, however, see it all. As Tariq told Carol, “My father taught me it is better to practice what you believe than to go to the mosque every day. In your school, I see you practice what you believe.”

Stories like this are unfolding all around the globe. At TMS Global, we can help you find your place in God's mission.

Is God sending you on a detour?

Contact us for more information about your next steps.

*Name changed for security