I've just had a second conversation in two days with two different students about their feelings of abandonment from parents. I suppose in a high school boarding program, this is to be expected. But my heart is stirred by conversations like these. What do I have to tell them? I remember having feelings similar to these. The world is not so big, after all.
We often have questions as dorm advisers. We wonder what to do: should we allow Momo to go to New York to visit her friend, even though her mother didn't list her friend in her additional contacts, and her friend only turned 18 (literally) yesterday? No, of course. But her sister is listed as an additional contact, and it's so very important that she visit her friend! And her sister will take care that should anything happen... Should anything happen. Should anything happen--! We live in fear of anything happening. We must answer for all of it. Honestly, I feel like an unqualified babysitter much of the time (where is Stephen's manual for Babysitting Teenagers from China, Korea, and Ethiopia?).
But beautiful gifts are all mixed in with the mundane decisions. Yesterday, I was in the office during the morning. Dahin came in and we chatted about life and morals and Christ. She asked so many good questions: how are the Jews different from Christians? Why did Hitler single them out? Why does the U.S. support Israel now? I appreciated her poignant questions. My heart filled up, and I'm afraid I got long-winded.
I must not have driven her away forever, for today she came back; severely bored, she said. We talked about more of life and boys and relationships. And suddenly I did not appreciate her poignant questions as much. Later, Rika came in for grammar help on an essay. Her essay was on her "spiritual pilgrimage." She wasn't very interested in my commenting on her grammar, though. She preferred to converse about the meaning of the essay as a whole. She needed to discuss her spiritual pilgrimage, for she is in the midst of many new outlooks, filled with choices and confusion.
How do I wrap this up? That's not the end of all I have to say about my life right now. If it were the end, I hope I'd be doing something cooler than blogging.
mom here:P.P.P.&A.Pie, don't underestimate the power of the H.S to work through you as a mentor in this lost & dying world! Though you may grow weary, take heart & know what you've been through can be used as a springboard to jump into hopeful explanations to people. No culture, no parent, no boarding school is perfect, but Jesus can change the way we see things.The BIBLE says, "The foxes have holes & the birds have nests, but the Son of man has no where to rest his head", also,"he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief". In Him we live & move & have our being, make a joyful noise, sing unto the Lord, dance before him...Lead the lambs to the alter, offer prayer, offer hope, be real, rise up with a thankful heart from the original crisis...and He will lift you up on Eagles wings. Many are holding up your arms in the battle!! I will glorify the Prince of Peace!
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