TEACHING
MORE THAN MUSIC

Topics: Calling; Career; Dedication; Love; Ministry; Sacrifice; Vocation

Reference: Matthew 18:5–6

Jack Martens is a band teacher of teens in San Francisco. For thirty-three years he has braved the challenges of less-than-ideal teaching conditions at Ben Franklin Middle School to live out his faith. Over 50 percent of Martens’s students are from broken homes, on welfare, and from families where English is not the first language. And funding for the arts has been all but cut off in Jack’s school district.

Still the fifty-six-year-old, bearded band teacher shepherds his students through the less-than-green pastures of life. “I love these kids,” he says. “And they love me. In me they can see my love for Jesus Christ.”

Although Martens keeps a Bible and other Christian symbols on his desk, it is his interaction with the kids that is his primary witness. He eats lunch with his kids to help them talk through their problems. He stays after school to help them with difficult fingerings on their instruments. Through the mechanics of music he is able to show his students they are capable of something beautiful.

—Greg Asimakoupoulos, Mercer Island, Washington