Empty Desks

Sunday, December 05, 2010
7:32 PM in Kolonia, 12:32 AM at home


Pohnpei can be a rough place to call home sometimes.
We found out that one of the high school students died this morning. He was hit by a taxi last night and died on the life-flight to Hawaii.

He was not one of my students. Our school is small, yet I still don’t know which freshman this was. But it makes me wonder how I’d react if it were one of mine. I am sorry for the teachers here that have to deal with an empty desk tomorrow. My heart goes out to the students who are already missing their friend or who will be shocked to find out tomorrow he is gone. There were four deaths in student families last month, but this is the first student we’ve lost this year. I pray it is the last.

I still feel a bit distanced from it. Half of my heart is sad, and half of my head is reflective, while the rest of me is somewhere else. I shudder to think what I would have to face if I lost one of my students. I love them all so dearly, though they can’t imagine how much. But I am resolved to try and reach them each day as if it were my last with them. I should not strive to teach them as much as I can, but love them as much as I can through patience, kindness, encouragement, and listening. I don’t ever want to see an empty desk in my classroom. Even more, I don’t ever want to see an empty desk when we get to Heaven. I wasn’t called here to teach. I was called here to love.

Please keep the school in your prayers this week.