Teacher Sarah was our Sunday school
teacher, she’s fun, approachable, caring and loving. Among all the people in
the church, she is someone I will never forget. One of the things that I will
never forget is the way she taught us in our Sunday school class, she comes in
prepared, and bringing all the stuff she needs for the class. Her eyes were
always beaming with excitement as she starts the lesson with singing, dancing,
storytelling and games.
However, despite of her efforts,
her students failed to notice her sacrifice, love and commitment in bringing
them in relationship with God. Sad to say, I was once participated in pranks we
kids played on her: one Sunday morning, she was discussing a topic about the
faith of Abraham, she was happy and energetic as usual, when she gave out a
question, no one was answering, that was the time we start to giggle. She seemed
not to notice that we were wearing earphones and we are not paying attention to
her all the time until she called me, I dramatically stood up and blurted out “Ano
po yun”?, [What’s that?] and everyone laughed out loud!
That was one of the incidents we
played on her, we never realized how badly it affects her but she never show
any hint of dismay. One time when I was going to the church library, I heard a soft
whimper from the prayer room; it was Teacher Sarah, praying. I was just about
to continue my walk to the library when I heard my name being mentioned in her
prayer, she was praying for all of us, for the first time I felt the heaviness
in her heart, “Father I commit my students to You, do not let them go astray,
let Your Word be powerful in their life to change them according to Your will,
shield them by the blood of Jesus so that the power of the enemy may not take
hold of them. Lord I am limited in my understanding and ways and my days are
numbered so before I pass away, may Your Word be rooted in them…”
I was stunned, tears began to flow
down my eyes, we never realized how much she loved us and how heavy her burden
is for us. I hurriedly wiped my tears in my eyes when I heard that she was
standing up, I ran to the library and there I continued to cry.
It was Sunday morning, all of us
were present that day, eagerly waiting for the coming of Teacher Sarah, we
prepared our Bible; she always remind us to bring our Bible for almost every Sunday
school class she would get upset for continuous reminding us to bring it for we
carry our cell phones more than our Bible, we readied our pens and notebooks
for we always forget that these two are pairs, sometimes we have pens but we
don’t have papers, or the papers without the pens. I talked to everyone in our Sunday
school class about Teacher Sarah’s prayer and just to show how much we
appreciate her, we are turning a new leaf!
When the door finally opened we
were surprised that it was not Teacher Sarah, the new teacher told us that she
will be taking over the class in the meantime while Teacher Sarah is not
around.
It was almost four months and we
never heard any news from her, until one Sunday service, our pastor announced
that Teacher Sarah passed away due to brain tumor which she was suffering for a
long time. She continued her sacrifice and she never showed any quitting for
the sake of her love for the Lord and for us. I cried over the news and I noticed
that all her students cried at the same time, I remembered how bad we treated
her, how we ignored her and upset her because of our stubbornness, I remembered
how she gave everything for us, treated us to McDonalds or a free lunch or when
we needed advice she was there all the time, yes, I remembered everything and
how I felt regret for treating her that way.
“Hello everyone, I’m so sorry if I can’t
be with you, I even failed to say goodbye on our last meeting, but that’s
alright, I was diagnosed with brain tumor and I’ve had this for over a year,”
it was a video of her in the hospital, she was lying with oxygen tubes attached
on her nose, she had lost her hair and her skin and lips look so pale, but she
never failed to wear a smile. “I will miss every one of you, my pastor, my
friends and my students, you have been God’s gift to me that made me what I am
today, a strong person inside this sick body. Someday when you see me, this
body is renewed never again deteriorates. And I am praying especially for my
students that none of you be lost so that when Jesus appears in all His glory
we will see Him face to face and we will see each other, what a glorious sight
that would be! I want you to be strong, influence the world for Jesus, love Him
above all else and honor Him with your life. I wish I could see you now but I guess
I will be stuck here in the hospital for a long time. Anyway, God bless you
all!” That concludes the video, the atmosphere was filled with sadness for a
person so wonderful died and we her students failed to show how much we loved
her.
When we came to her wake, her
sister reached out to us one by one a thank you card which according to her, Teacher
Sarah wrote one week before she died. She also showed us some of her visual
aids which were unfinished and a picture of us in the room during one of our Sunday
school class. She filled her life with the memory of us even before she passed
away and she was thankful for every experience.
A thousand times we made her cry,
we ignored her and we played pranks on her. Though there are times we made her
smile but there are more times we upset her because of our immaturity, but she
responded with love, care and understanding. Teacher Sarah taught us many
important lessons but one thing we will never forget is to value a person and
treat everyone as a gift from God, because the life of a person has its limits
and you don’t know when so while you can value everyone as if this is their
last day on earth. There are many Teacher Sarahs today, she may be your mom or
dad, a friend, a pastor, a church mate or someone you are ignoring within your
community, turn a new leaf today before they say goodbye tomorrow…
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