Cindy Hall, left, has taught elementary school for 18 years. She is currently the director of the Dyslexia Center at Lindsay Lane Christian Academy. She and her husband, Charles, right, have three children and three grandchildren.

In the same way a lighthouse helps boats navigate their way through difficult waters, Cindy Hall could be seen as a beacon of light for all the dyslexic students she has guided over the last two decades.

Hall grew up on a farm near Boone, Iowa, and earned her degrees in Bible and Elementary Education from Faith Baptist Bible College.

“I found Faith to have a very practical education department, which prepared me for stepping into a classroom of my own,” said Hall. “For example, the emphasis on learning to develop lesson units and plans from scratch has been helpful over the years in the classroom but has been particularly important in working with dyslexic students who benefit from many teacher-created materials.”

She said the final emphasis that greatly impacted her teaching was an overall philosophy of teaching students rather than subjects.

“I saw that in action as my professors reached past their teaching podiums to bring me along when I was a student at Faith,” Hall said.

Since her days at Faith, Hall has spent 18 years as an elementary teacher. She is currently the director of the Dyslexia Center at Lindsay Lane Christian Academy, a center she was hired to design and implement. With a staff of about 12 tutors and teachers, the center provides assistance to 50 or more students every day for specialized instruction in reading, spelling, grammar and writing.

Getting a dyslexia center off the ground in a Christian school setting, with an unproven program, was no easy task. The center opened in 2010 with six students and Hall as its only staff member.

“I tried to correct each mistake I made and to learn from each mistake,” Hall said. “The six original students improved their language skills rapidly, and within a few years, all were back in the mainstream classroom for all their subjects. Word of that success spread, and we began to flourish.”

Hall uses her experiences with LLCA to educate others in her community about the challenges of dyslexia. Last summer, she teamed with the American Association of Christian Schools to provide training to 30 AACS teachers to help their own students with dyslexia.

However, her work doesn’t come without challenges. She explained it’s important to remember why you are there.

“I would tell a person considering an education degree to consider why they want to be a teacher. If it is for any reason other than they feel God calling them to teach, then they should do something else,” Hall said. “… It is vital to know every single day that you walk into your classroom that you are there because God called you to this grade, these children, at this school. Assurance of God’s call on your teaching career will give you the wherewithal to make it through the difficult days because you are there by divine appointment, not because of your own whims.”

Hall said she enjoys spending time with her family, which includes her husband, Charles, and their three sons. Each son is married, with two of them residing in South Carolina and one in Alabama. They also have three grandchildren.

Hall said the biggest lesson she has learned in her life and career so far is there is great joy in serving the Lord. Her career and ministry of serving others has also convinced her it is always worth the time and energy it takes to invest in people.

“That might be one-on-one tutoring with a student, multiple meetings with a parent, or mentoring a young teacher, but I have learned that those personal investments are what ministry is really all about,” she said.

— Gogerty is on the communications staff of Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary.