Hello, my name is Sheila Stielow, and I am delighted to teach at Ankeny Christian Academy child care. I feel that Christian education is so crucial in a child’s life, from the beginning to their final years in college. This is a foundation to a child’s character. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
I grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa where I attended Valley High School. After graduation, I started to work at a Christian preschool and daycare for more than 7 years until I was ready to have a family of my own.
My husband and I have made it a priority for our children, Isaiah and Madeline, to be in Christian education for all of their years of schooling. I was able to stay home and homeschool my daughter for the last 6yrs, and now that our children are grown up, I have decided to go back to teaching in child care again.
I have spent most of my childhood in church, but I did not experience a real relationship with Christ until I was in junior high school. My aunt received a terminal diagnosis of inoperable cancer when she was only 32 years old. We had some other family members that went to a church that taught about salvation and the importance of a relationship with Christ. I thought that all this time we went to church and our relationship with God was okay, but I never actually knew what a personal relationship with God was. My aunt was getting worse and in a terrible amount of pain that the doctors could not help her get it under control. The family who shared with us the importance of salvation asked my aunt if she wanted to invite Christ into her heart, and she prayed with them and received Jesus as her Savior. At that moment, her pain was gone, and she could breathe without the oxygen mask on. Shortly after that prayer, she went home to be with Jesus. Later that week, my mother and father accepted Jesus and asked if I would like the assurance of salvation in my life. It was then, at the age of 13, that I invited Jesus into my heart. I have been running the race set before me and longing for the day He will say well done my good a faithful servant enter into my rest.
The last few years of my life God has been teaching me He knows what is best so I have been leaning on this life verse: Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”