Do you remember your fifth-grade teacher? Now dig a little deeper. Do you remember your fifth-grade Sunday school teacher?<\/p>\n
Adam Dvorak does. In fact, when the honor student graduated from North St. Paul High School this spring, he was asked to select a teacher who made a difference. He chose his fifth-grade Sunday school teacher, Sylvia Johnson, at First Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minn.<\/p>\n
“Frankly, I was just shocked that I had made such an impression on him,” says Johnson. “He said that I took a bunch of very active boys and turned them around. We had a fun class.” Johnson is a donor to Luther Seminary, and her late husband, Pastor Dwight Johnson, was one of the founders of the Global Mission Institute.<\/p>\n
“In the years after that, even up through high school, I remember seeing her still teaching Sunday school, attending services and just being active around the church,” said Dvorak. “She is a model of service and volunteerism.” Johnson still teaches Sunday school, and Dvorak is attending Bethel College and working toward a degree in biblical studies.<\/p>\n
“Sylvia was a factor in my decision to pursue biblical studies. Not only did she educate me about the basics of my faith, I think she might have planted the seed of my interest in theology,” said Dvorak. “She has the heart of a servant. I also have a passion for serving others. I think that passion for serving was probably influenced by the example that Sylvia showed me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you remember your fifth-grade teacher? Now dig a little deeper. Do you remember your fifth-grade Sunday school teacher? Adam Dvorak does. In fact, when the honor student graduated from North St. Paul High School this spring, he was asked to select a teacher who made a difference. He chose his fifth-grade Sunday school teacher, Sylvia Johnson, at First Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake, Minn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"issue-fall-2009","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n