A Channel of Blessing at Westgate Christian Academy

Here is Mom's personal testimony of her time at Westgate Christian Academy (WCA):

I felt I was being called by God to lay down my occupation - a title - a job I really loved. And He was saying, “Just obey me.” What could I say but “Amen, Lord.” And there was an opportunity to work at WCA. I felt like here was the answer to my years of praying for the Lord to make me a fruitful branch, a channel. When I prayed for a word from the Lord, He brought to mind this hymn.

Channels Only Blessed Savior

1 How I praise Thee, precious Savior,
That Thy love laid hold of me;
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me,
That I might Thy channel be.

Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all Thy wondrous grace,
Flowing through us, Thou canst use us
Every hour in every place.

2 Just a channel, full of blessing,
To the thirsty hearts around;
To tell out Thy full salvation,
All Thy loving message sound.

3 Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,
A clean vessel in Thine hand;
With no strength but as Thou givest
Graciously with each command.

4 Witnessing Thy grace to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou hast bought me to possess me,
In Thy fulness, Lord, come in.

5 O Lord, fill now with Thy Spirit
Hearts that full surrender know;
That the streams of living water
From our inner man may flow.

Since I have been working here, the Lord has afforded various opportunities in which the outcome did not depend on me but on allowing Him to use me as His channel.

Most of you know the story of little Grace. What you didn't see was when she came to WCA the first time and her mother told her that I was the lady who helped bring her here. She ran down the hall and hugged me saying Gracias, Senora, gracias. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that we could be a part of rescuing one of your precious ones! [Editor’s note: Grace was a young girl who was saved from the streets of Bolivia through Joanne’s efforts with the U.S. immigration office to acquire a student visa for her to come to school at Westgate Christian Academy]

There was one boy who did not know how to pray to God - we prayed together for the first time. Then every time he was naughty, he knew what to do; he had to confess to God and ask him to forgive him and help him do better. I had to praise the Lord for all those naughty times - they brought this little one to God.

Another young boy cheated on a test. I shared with him about being a vessel using the example of how a cup with hole could not contain anything. In the end he prayed that the Lord would preserve him so he could be useful.

Once, a little pre-elementary girl came to my office because she would not obey the teacher. She sat through recess and would not talk with me. The Lord touched me to pray for her. I put my arms around her and prayed, “Thank you Lord Jesus for this little girl. Please touch her heart, help her to change her attitude. Show her how much you love her.” She put her arms around my neck and her whole body just relaxed. She said she was ready to go back to class and she went back and apologized to the teachers, full of joy.

One day after a three-hour session with a child, who was out of control, I was spent, and quite frankly ready to quit. I didn't come here to be spit on, after all. Then the Lord touched me to lay my hands on the student and pray for him. After I prayed, I began to sing a hymn. He was subdued and I was filled with the Lord's love for this little one. He changed, but I changed more, I think.

The opportunities with students were endless. When I heard some speaking that I felt was not appropriate, I was able to speak to the students and tell them to consider why they have a mouth. I told them I didn't believe that God gave them a mouth to speak the way they were speaking!

There were a few students who were frequent visitors to my office. One would think they would see me as an enemy. Yet, this last time when I prayed together with one of them, he actually thanked for Lord for all the time spent there in my office!

The Lord also provided many opportunities for me to serve as a channel—to parents. Once, when I was talking about uniforms, a parent asked me why I left the Catholic Church, and I had an opportunity to share my testimony with her. Another time, after a Christmas caroling evening, a parent was very angry. When she came to my office, I was able to share the gospel with her.

After spending time with kids in my office, I would always try to share with their parents what the Lord laid on my heart to speak to their children.

Young teachers need encouragement to continue pursuing the Lord, serving Him, being consecrated. Teachers have misunderstandings with one another - it is so wonderful to be available to the Lord to see Him iron out the wrinkles of our selves and make the crooked paths straight in us. Each day holds opportunities to be a channel.

Last year, in the spring, at the end of a very hard and heartbreaking time, the students performed in a spring festival. They shone like glistening stars. They were untouched by the storm around them - protected by the Lord's love! One student was worried about her song and instead of trying to convince her that it would be okay, we prayed together for the Lord to be her focus, her joy and her song.

Not every session is so successful or memorable. We don't always see the results but I have confidence in the eternal seeds that are planted. God is not mocked - what we sow, we'll reap. His word does not return to Him void. What we are doing at WCA is being a channel to the thirsty hearts God has brought. What a privilege! How I praise Him for this opportunity. Thank you, Lord, for this ministry.

Another Version of Mom's Testimony of Salvation

Here is another version of Mom's testimony of salvation that she also personally wrote:

I was raised in a Catholic family. My parents feared God and attended church regularly. They strongly believed that God existed, but did not have a personal relationship with Him. I was a seeking young person in the 1970’s and had many questions regarding the turmoil of the era. Why were my young friends going to Vietnam? Why were young people being shot and killed on college campuses? Why was there segregation? Didn’t God notice? Didn’t He care? Where was He, anyway? On a more personal level, I longed for a relationship. I wanted someone to love me unconditionally. Not too many people could offer me that kind of love.

A close friend of mine went away for the summer and came back a “Jesus person”. I didn’t really know what happened to her but she was different and she loved Jesus. I didn’t think it was strange to love Jesus. But she loved Him because she seemed to know Him. That was very intriguing. Unfortunately, she never told me how I could know Him. But her experience sparked the searching in me to know Jesus.

I went away to college and was drawn to fellowship there with a group of Christians. The people seemed friendly which was very unusual for a competitive music school. I attended one of their meetings and was horrified when I was asked to pray out loud. I stumbled over my words and uttered something like, “Oh God, I’m not worthy to pray to You. But I want to know You.” I left the meeting feeling like I was on the right track. Maybe somehow, someday, I thought, I could talk to God like those people did. He seemed to be their friend.

In the meantime, my friends from home had stopped calling me and were not very good at writing letters. I felt abandoned and discarded. I just wanted a lasting relationship with someone who would return the love I offered. I went to the cafeteria in tears and was invited to sit down at a table with two students I recognized from the Christian group. I was lonely, upset and desperate. They told me that the Lord Jesus loved me unconditionally and that I could have a relationship with him. At first, I rejected this-I had been to church, I said all the prayers and I didn’t have any kind of relationship with God. He was too far away, too distant. But they persisted and said that what I had before was an objective knowledge that God existed. They told me that if I opened up my heart and invited Jesus to come into my life, I would enter into a lasting relationship with Him. He was the friend I had been looking for. He offered the love that was unconditional. He laid down His life for me. So I prayed with them, asking Jesus to forgive my sins and to come into my heart and be my life. At that moment, I walked out of a lonely, rejection-filled life and entered into a life where I am continually being supplied by the life of God. I was filled with hope for the first time in my life. The emptiness in the core of my being was gone! And I experienced being loved unconditionally by the One who loved me and gave His life for me.

Testimony of Salvation

Here is a copy of Mom's personal testimony of salvation:

Friend. Companion. Pal. Chum. Crony. Buddy. Soul mate. The fact that the English language has many words for this kind of human relationship seems to indicate that friendship is a prize worth winning and that one’s success is linked to the abundance of friends. As a child, I began a quest for a best friend, someone who would care about me and whom I would care for, who would be honest with me, who would journey with me through life’s adventures and, most important, would accept me for who I was. I was looking for someone who would love me just as I was. This was no small quest and I wasn’t sure I would be successful. But I knew I didn’t want to go through life alone and I figured, if the longing for a friend was there, then the person was worth searching for.

My mother said I was a friendly person. “People will like you,” she said, “because you have a nice smile and you are genuine.” At first I was optimistic, thinking that perhaps my mom was right. When I found someone who seemed interested in friendship, I gave my time, money, listening ear, and emotional support eagerly and whole-heartedly, expecting the same in return. Sadly, this was not often my experience. In fact, demands were often made of me before I would be considered a friend. Once, in order to be invited to a friend’s birthday party, I was asked to complete the birthday girl’s geography homework while the party was going on. I did it because I hoped that she would see what a good friend I could be and would be willing to become my friend. That didn’t happen, though. In fact, she didn’t even say thank you. My longing for a relationship with someone deepened as did my sadness that perhaps no one could love me in this way.

As I went through middle school, the desire for a genuine friend grew. Many so-called friends from elementary school ended our friendships because they were embarrassed to be seen with me, or because I lived in a small house with a large family or because I had curly hair. Their shallowness was heartbreaking. I couldn’t seem to find anyone who shared the same desire as I did for a genuine friend. Popularity was defined by values that held little or no importance to me. Were there others like me who had the same longing, who saw through the superficiality?

To fill up the longing in my heart, I gave myself to music. Singing was my passion and I became quite a prominent performer in high school. I could escape from the harsh emptiness of my life into the characters I played in operas, musicals and plays. I sang at Carnegie Hall, sang leading roles in many operas and won many music awards and recognition. To my surprise, as my reputation grew, so did my group of friends. People wanted to be around someone who had the leading role in an opera. Yet, the friendships didn’t last. When the performance was over, the friendships often ended. One girl I considered a close friend, said “Why should I talk to you now? We have nothing in common anymore. The play is over and so is our relationship.” Again and again, I felt depleted, emptied of everything I had poured into people who just walked away.

Through all this searching, not once had I considered God as a friend. I was raised in a Catholic family. My parents feared God and attended church regularly. I strongly believed that God existed, but did not have a personal relationship with Him and never thought of Him as a potential friend. God? He was too far away, too busy, too obscure to be a friend. I wondered if He could understand my struggle, if He could even remotely know about the longing that was in my heart. I never considered that the answer might be found in the One I was wondering about. The only glimpse that God was even aware of my condition came in the summer before my senior year. A girl in my neighborhood went to visit her sister and came back a changed person. She did not have the emptiness in her that I had. She seemed to be resting in the knowledge that she was loved. This really intrigued me. Could she know the answer to my searching? She and her mother invited me to their home for a Bible study. We read verses about God and my curiosity about God was stirred. While He still appeared too intangible to be realized as a friend, every time I read the Bible, I felt comforted. He definitely deserved further seeking out.

I was accepted to Eastman School of Music, majoring in Voice performance and piano. My voice teacher was the head of the voice department. My goal was to sing with the Metropolitan Opera Company. While I pursued this goal with my whole being, I still could not escape the longing for someone to share my life with. I thought that perhaps at Eastman I would find a friend to share the same interests, aspirations and desires. However, I was not prepared for the competitive, self-centered, egotistical students I found there. After the first few weeks of shallow, useless and heartbreaking attempts at establishing friendships, I heard about a group of Christians who were meeting in my dorm. I remembered how comforted I felt when I read the Bible a few summers ago. The people seemed friendly, in the true sense of the word, which was a huge contrast to the rest of the students at this competitive music school. I attended their meeting and listened to each one of them talk to God as a friend, as One who knew them, as One who loved them. It seemed that He, if He was real, could possibly be that friend I had been searching for all my life. Maybe somehow, someday, I thought, I could talk to God like these people did. He was not remote. He was a real, present person.

Weeks passed, and friends from home did not call and were not very good at writing letters. I felt abandoned and discarded. I just wanted a lasting relationship with someone who would return the love I offered. I called someone I cared about deeply and realized that my love was not returned. I didn’t really matter to anyone. I was insignificant. I went to the cafeteria in tears and was invited to sit down at the table with two students I recognized from the Christian group. I was lonely, upset and desperate. They told me that the Lord Jesus loved me, that I mattered very much to Him and that He was the friend I was seeking. At first, I rejected this. I had been to church, I said all the prayers and this never resulted in any kind of relationship. God was too far away, too distant. Just like all the others in my life. Why should He care about me? He was God. He was busy taking care of the universe. They persisted and said that I only knew something about God, that I didn’t really know Him. They told me that if I opened up my heart to Jesus and invited Him into my life, I would enter into an eternal relationship with Him. He offered the love that was unconditional. Even before I could do anything right or wrong, He loved me. He laid down His life for me. I was looking for a friend, and all the while He was waiting for me. I considered my options. My life had been spent in the empty pursuit of a friend that I had not been able to find. I was tired of being disappointed. These people presented to me the person I had been seeking all along. I prayed with them, asking Jesus to forgive my sins and come into my heart and be my life, my companion and my friend. At that moment, I walked out of a lonely, rejection-filled life and found the One who is the friend of sinners. I was filled with joy for the first time in my life. The emptiness in the core of my being was gone! I experienced being loved unconditionally by the One who loved me and gave His life for me. Song of Solomon 5:16 says, His mouth is sweetness itself, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Perhaps the words of the following hymn can help you to understand the experience that was mine and can be yours:

I sighed for rest and happiness,
I yearned for them, not Thee;
But, while I passed my Savior by,
His love laid hold on me.
Now none but Christ can satisfy,
None other name for me;
There’s love and life and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee.

Joanne Juraschek Memorial Gathering

You are welcome to rejoice with us on Saturday, July 18th, at 2:00 P.M. as we testify of the Lord's love and the faithful operation of His grace in Joanne's life. This gathering will take place at the meeting hall of the Church in Newton on 50 Dudley Road in Newton, MA. Please email Stephen Juraschek at spj@jhmi.edu if you need more information. Hallelujah for His resurrection life (Jn 11:25)!

At Home with the Lord

This afternoon, Joanne went peacefully to be with the Lord. She is abroad from her physical body and at home with the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 5:8). Further information will be provided later. We appreciate the prayer and many forms of support these past two years.