day 363: priorities, community & prayer

as of yesterday, term 2 for the 2013 school-year officially began. things are continually changing here & at every school there have been adjustments to the timetable. on tuesdays we now teach one grade-6 class in morning & return later in the day for after-school club. this afternoon as we pulled back into the school we noticed it seemed unusually quiet. a few of the learners still stood at the gate (a pretty typical scene), but as we made our way to the classrooms we found each & every one empty. no teachers. no students. nothing.

we weren't late...& were very confused. we'd even made sure to ask the kids before we left earlier in the day what time school let out. what was going on? the teachers' cars were there but they were absolutely nowhere to be found!

we tried to walk into the office but it was locked. so we went to talk with the kids at the gate. in very broken english they were able to communicate to us that school had let out at 2 instead of 3...as for the reason, they pointed to the administration building & said, "meeting." as we peered into the windows we finally found the teachers. one of the them with whom we work very closely (mr. "m") caught our eyes, stood & came to speak with us. a bit frustrated (but not surprised) that no one told us about the change of schedule & that we'd missed another opportunity with the kids, we rounded the corner to meet him.

but our hearts soon changed as we leared that on monday, the principal's daughter - a girl about our age - had committed suicide. the teachers decided to let school out an hour early the next day so that they could meet & plan a time of visiation, prayer & worship with the family on wednesday.

driving away from the school i couldn't help but be overwhelmed by a number of thoughts:
- i was so frustrated...until i was hit with a dose of perspective. how often is that true of my heart/life? where is my focus?
- i can't imagine a school in the US deciding last minute to cut school short, send the kids home without notice in order to rally around, encourage & love on a staff member's family. oh how africa has much to teach us about community.
- Lord, what are you trying to show me here? 3 suicides that i've learned of in the last few weeks. we must walk into each day with a renewed sense of urgency in sharing of hope, love & eternal life with a lost & broken world.

join us in PRAYing...
- for this principal & his family as they grieve the loss of their daughter.
- that our Lord, the One True God would be honored & glorified above all. while mr. "m" (an indian man of the hindu faith) is leading in a time of PRAYer & other teachers are leading in songs of worship with the family, they all come from various religious backgrounds. syncretism is so very prevalent here but PRAY that the light & Truth of Christ ALONE would be made known during such a crucial time in the life of this family & community.
- for the salvation of mr. "m" - who seems very hungry for Truth, always asking questions. we have recently been moved out of his classes so connecting with him takes great intentionality. asking the Lord for open doors & trusting Him to fling them wide open!