The Lighthouse Keeper Who Nearly Quit

In 1989, a woman named Margaret Chen ran a free tutoring center out of her garage in East Oakland, California. Every weekday after school, eight to twelve kids from the neighborhood would crowd around folding tables, working through math problems and reading assignments. Margaret was a retired schoolteacher living on a modest pension. Nobody asked her to do it. No organization funded it.

After three years, she grew exhausted. The neighborhood was rough. Two of her students had dropped out. She told her pastor she was done — it wasn't making a difference. He asked her to give it one more month.

That month, a local reporter stopped by and wrote a small feature for the Oakland Tribune. Within weeks, two other retired teachers volunteered. A church across town donated supplies. By 1995, the garage program had moved into a proper building and served over sixty students a week. Three of Margaret's original kids went on to college — the first in their families.

Jesus told His followers they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world. He did not say they should try to become those things. He said they already were. Margaret Chen did not set out to transform a neighborhood. She simply refused to lose her flavor, to hide her small, steady flame. And the Father in heaven was glorified — not through spectacle, but through one woman's faithful, visible, ordinary goodness. That is what it looks like when salt stays salty and light stays lit.