OAC Publications
Borderlines
April 1998

FROM TEACHER TO TRAINEE

An interview with Bea Tschopp

I was born and grew up in Basle, Switzerland. I qualified as a teacher of five-to-seven year-olds, and taught for ten years.

One year, I told the Christmas story and the Easter story, which you are allowed to do in Swiss pre-schools. The children in my class kept asking me if Jesus stayed a little baby, so I began telling them Bible stories once a fortnight for ten minutes or so at a time.

But the parents didn't like what I was doing. They kept asking what I thought I was doing teaching all this religious stuff, as the children would find out about later anyway. They started complaining to my boss, who told me to stop telling Bible stories - but I didn't, because the children loved them and really responded to them.

One little girl had been suffering from nightmares. One night, her mother came into her room, and the little girl said "Mummy, you can go to sleep again, because Jesus is with me and I'm not afraid any more". Her mother came rushing into the school and asked me what I was doing to the children. I told her that I had never told them anything like that, and that the girl had obviously just understood the Bible's message.

People started sending letters of complaint to the mayor, and I had to go and see the authorities. Switzerland is supposed to be a free country, but I felt really persecuted. I realised that things could not continue like this, so I prayed that God would guide me.

In 1995, I decided to take a sabbatical and I went to LUKE (OM UK's evangelism centre, based in Halesowen) where I learned many creative methods of evangelism. I discovered that it was something that I really enjoyed doing, and in which I was also gifted. I also got to know Rob and Traci Davis of OAC Nottingham during this year, and they invited me to join their team.

In October 1996 I came to England to check things out and it seemed that all the doors opened. I even found my first supporter, a girl who I'd never met before. I went back to Switzerland, and prayed things through with my church, who sent me out as their first missionary in the autumn of 1997.

What I hope to do over the next few months is to pick up the tools, to become better in things like puppetry. My dream is to work in a team and do evangelism, in schools and in the open air, with people who are gifted in a variety of techniques, such as mime, drama, and maybe in clowning and juggling. I'm still praying about my future, and I'm sure that God will lead me to the right place and the right people in his own good time.