There’s a lot on my mind right now. I shut the door of the church building tonight after teaching ESL and I looked up to where people wait for the bus and recognized some ladies standing there with their heads covered and wearing thick clothes as if it was late november. So I got into the bus with some of the ladies I teach ESL to. One of them turned to me and told how she enjoyed our classes because she felt relaxed and it was good for her to get out and do stuff with people. She told me she was having some trouble with a divorce that had just came as a big “surprise” into her life. She’s kinda young too, so it sadened me. Then she told me she lives in a 1 1/2 and doesn’t work, she told me how sometimes she feels alone (those are my words). I was really sad to hear that.

What makes me even more sad is that I have hope that she has no idea of, but I can’t use the Bible in class anymore. I don’t know how to tell her, tell them that there is hope, not in this life, not in people, but in Jesus. I feel like I’d like to be more than a mere teacher for these ladies. When I was at university this years, I often felt like, “Hey, I like this teacher, I wish we’d be friends.” I just like people sometimes. And I feel that I’m doing the same thing with my students, I’m just being a nice teacher. But I wonder if some students would like to be friends with me. Not like tight or whatever, but just be there to share their ups and downs. That’s just something I feel strongly about. I see most of them as lost sheep in need of someone to listen and encourage them.

Why do I care so much about these ladies that are so different from me? I hate this expression, butit is true right now: I can’t help it.