As a Christian, Nissa believes she can be a blessing anywhere the Lord puts her. With three out of four daughters enrolled at her local western Sydney public school, this means she and her family are seeking ways they can be a source of hope and encouragement to those around them.

She shared some of the ways she seeks to be a blessing to her local school community.

1. Be present at school

“In order to be a light, you need to be visible,” she says. For Nissa, this includes chatting with other parents at school whenever possible. “The best way to be in community is to enter into community. This never used to be part of my personality. But I have gone from being a person who walks in a room and doesn’t talk to people to having to learn how to talk to people. If I can say ‘Hi’ to someone alone at church, I can do that at school as well.”

2. Be present in the community

Many families and children recognise Nissa from her volunteer roles in other parts of the community. “One of the things that has made it easier to be a light in the school community is that I served in the local playgroup,” she says. “When my kids went to school, we already knew some families. They already knew we were a Christian family.”

3. Be open about faith

“Talk about your faith,” Nissa says. “It’s not scary to say, ‘I had a great weekend, we went to church and then out for a family lunch. How about you?’.” She also tries to explain how her beliefs influence decisions her family makes. “It’s okay to say when RSVP’ing to an invite, ‘I’m sorry we can’t go, I’m serving in church on Sunday’. People who go to sport will talk about sport, so I think we need to be less nervous mentioning that we are people of faith.”

4. Offer support to other parents

Being known as a Christian has meant that when others have had questions or needed support, especially in matters of faith, they’ve felt comfortable to reach out to Nissa. “My friend’s daughter asked her mum [questions about God], and her mum thought to contact me to ask, ‘What else can I give her to nurture her faith?’. Being in those spheres means that if someone has a question, I’m in the right place to answer them.”

5. Be prayerful

“We pray for things happening at school,” Nissa says. “It would be good to pray for the school as a whole. In your Sunday church prayers, pray for local schools, for the Christian teachers and families, for those who might have questions about faith and for those who might come to our church one day.”