I don't remember anything except the thing that mattered. She wasn't going to give up on me. Whether she actually said those words - I don't recall but that's what she conveyed.
I arrived in her room for the first of our sessions. It was the summer holidays for everyone else, but I was back at school. "We're going to start from scratch!" she said. I smiled at her, excited that I might soon be normal like everyone else. I'd had a speech impediment for all of my 8 1/2 years. Not being able to say my name was the hardest part. When I was about 3 I started saying "I'm not going to tell you!" when I was asked - which came out more like "I'm gnot going goo gell you!" Few understood my name on the first pass...or the second.
The morning lessons were followed by hours of afternoon practice. After I'd cracked the simple sounds we moved on to blends, gradually stitching together longer combinations.
By the end of the summer I had the breakthrough I'd been dreaming of! Not only could I say "My name is Esther", I was able to say "Thank you Mrs Schwiminger for teaching me how to speak!" If ever there was proof of my cure - that sentence was it.
When I was 25 I opened the phone book and decided to find her. Her's was the 3rd number I called. The words she had taught me to say so well just didn't want to come out, but after awhile, with tears which I hadn't reckoned on pouring down my cheeks I broke the silence. "It's Esther... you probably won't remember me, but in 1980 you spent the whole summer teaching me how to speak. I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to tell you this - but you need to know that you never giving up on me changed my life."
I have no idea if Mrs Schwiminger had a faith in God, but in the summer of 1980 in her classroom at Takapuna Primary School, she was Jesus's answer for me. We limit God if we think His good can only come to us in certain ways. The longer I live the more convinced I am that God works in more ways than we can ever imagine. Ask Him to remind you of a time when He did something for you that you haven't yet attributed to Him. The answer (e.g. the flash of a memory when you ask) may surprise you.