Four students wrote winning essays and one teacher provided a creative approach for the Center for Mission’s 2012 Writing Contest.
Moms were the top response to the essay question: Who inspires your Christian faith? How has this person inspired you through words and actions?
In Division I — grades one to three, Sadie Klassen from Faithful Shepherd Catholic School in Eagan wrote, “My faith has been inspired by my mom, because we always pray at night, she always reminds me to believe in myself, she always makes me feel better when I’m sad. . . .”
In Division II — grades four to six, Theresa Hausmann from St. Joseph School in Rosemount said that her dad most inspires her faith. “He was a missionary in Kenya. There, he taught others about God. This inspires to teach people about God and spread the good news of Him.
“When my dad died I was sad. But when I found out how he died I felt better. I felt better because he had died in a bridge collapse trying to save a mom and her daughter.”
In Division III — grades seven to nine, Hailey Anderson from Holy Spirit School in St. Paul said that her mom is an influential role model. “She isn’t someone who just talks about God and having faith in the higher power, she is also someone who acts. . . . We have elderly neighbors my mom makes meals and apple pies for, and we deliver to their door and pay them a visit because they don’t leave their house much. . . . Through the hard times, she continues believing that things happen exactly the way they are supposed to, and that everything happens for a reason.”
In Division IV — grades 10-12, Sophia Pham from St. Adalbert parish in St. Paul is also inspired by her mom. “My mom has told me many stories of her childhood, but one that particularly stood out to me was her journey to America. My mother was a refugee from Vietnam. She first escaped with her younger sister at the age of 17. . . . A question that I have asked myself many time was, ‘How did she have the hope to keep going? I asked her and she answered simply with ‘God guides me through everything. He is always there for me, no matter what the circumstances are.’”
Ann Christy, a religion teacher at St. Wenceslaus School in New Prague, won for the most creative and innovative approach that encouraged her students to write for the contest.
She had the students construct a tree in the center of the classroom with the “Fruits of the Spirit” hanging on its branches. Those fruits were paragraphs about the inspiritional individuals in their lives.
Each winner in Division I and II received $50, Division III and IV received $100. Read their complete essays online.
