News Detail
Your Labor Is Not In Vain - We Will Never Be The Same
Monday, January 22, 2007
The robes were pressed and hung, the sound of tent pegs being hammered into the ground and last minute sound checks filled the air. Students hurried from one task to the next. Four months of intense training and hard work were about to culminate in a great celebration - the STMTC graduation ceremony. We walked the campus again reflecting back on all that had been done. Courses taught, tests taken, outreaches, labs and projects completed. We had watched an amazing transformation in the lives of the students. And yet in spite of the many victories one thought continued to haunt us: 'This is all in vain. You are wasting your time. Every bit of it is in vain.'
I thought again of the small trials we faced daily. Toilets that wouldn't flush, power outages delaying our many printing jobs and roaming bands of monkeys that terrorized the campus! Then there was the daily drone of prayers from surrounding Buddhist Temples and regular over the top Hindu celebrations. Add to that endless bone soaking rain. More serious were obstacles such as a team of six running a campus when there should have been twelve. Rarely a day off was realized by any.
There were issues that arose among the students in regard to caste system, social status and communalism that when dealt with became explosive in nature.
And on many days it felt like we were running a hospital. Outbreaks of Malaria, Tuberculosis, E Coli, and Typhoid- all threatened to shut us down.
Again the question: Has it all been in vain?
The students gathered one last time in an impromptu meeting, just hours before graduation. They called the meeting. Our leadership team arrived and was ushered in with great style. Every student was dressed in their best with every hair in place. They were up to something!
We were not prepared for the outpouring of gratitude that ensued. Testimony after testimony, many were broken and weeping as they shared. Such deep emotion it was hard for us to keep it together. God had dramatically transformed many lives. Towards the end one young man from Nagaland made his way to the front. He draped us each in a Naga shawl, the traditional gift of honor from his tribe. He waited a moment to make sure he had our attention, 'You must never forget, your labor is not in vain-we will never be the same.'
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