That’s my graduating class, at least all of them who came to the 30th reunion last Sabbath at Highland Academy in Portland Tennessee.
I arrived a bit early, and while signing up, was suddenly spirited off by two lively young ladies, one grabbing each arm. Whoops, forget the “young” part. This small gesture tho really made me feel at home, and welcome here in this place where i spent so much of my life growing up.
As usual, many of the people hang around in the foyer talking, while inside only a handful are sitting down. It used to be that the whole church would meet in the gym on Alumni Sabbath, and there would be probably close to 700-1000 people. But this year only the alumni were in the gym, so the number of people attending was much smaller.
One of our own class, Kevin Shelley, gave the sermon about complacency. Then most of the people ate lunch, while i went out searching for more people. I found the old P.E. teacher, one who used to treat us all very harshly, and we had a nice chat. One classmate told me a week earlier that this teacher remarked to her how he was sorry he treated us as he did, and of course i’ve forgiven him in my heart long ago. No doubt he was just doing what he thot best at the time, but to have the humbleness to admit he was wrong – that requires a heart that is rarely seen today.
My old 6th grade teacher saw me, and caused my eyes to water a bit. She told how she always prays to God to take care of her “little lambs”, and as i had been in the first batch, she always had something special for that first group. After answering her question about how people respond to the 1858 Great Controversy book, she confided: “Most people will never understand people like you and me.” That shook my heart to its core….so true, absolutely true. She is planning to retire this May after teaching at Highland for 36 years, and i really thank God for leading her to this place at such a time in my life – when i was just 12 years old.
Most of the time i spent with one classmate who i had gone to one of the junior-senior proms with. She has had a rollercoaster life, but is still wanting to have that deep walk with Jesus. Hopefully i can meet her again in the remaining part of this month while in America.
Around 4pm we all met in Ponce Hall, and went around in a circle explaining what has happened in each of our lives. It started out with a lot of laughter, but got more serious, then dragged a bit long. For some reason i had lots of butterflies in my stomach when i saw my turn approaching, but once started, all those butterflies flew away somewhere, and i had lots of clear thinking (that’s why i didn’t eat lunch) and talking, and could give one of these 1858gc books to everyone. Someone asked me to speak some Japanese, so i said John 3:16. Yes, that felt a little prideful maybe, hehe. Actually, i do still love Japan very much, but God is calling in different directions now…
The evening ended with me giving away some coins from various countries. One classmate has two sons in Pathfinders, so they should enjoy them.
The gravesite of my parents, with my name listed among the children on the back, of course brought tears to my eyes. The place is so peaceful, in an open field, with cows grazing nearby. If Jesus doesn’t come back soon, it would be nice to rest there, but as i won’t know anything anyway, it really doesn’t matter does it?
Thank you for sharing this personal story. I was touched by the paragraph about your sixth grade teacher. It was a selfless woman like her who inspired my husband and I to leave the rat race and move to a developing country to serve God. I believe your teacher’s crown will be very bright in heaven.
I went back just before leaving America, and that 6th grade teacher let me give a 20-minute talk on being a missionary, as that was part of a series they were having – inviting people to come into the classroom and talk about their profession. I gave them some Japanese stuff and a coin of the world each, and recited John 3:16 in Japanese to them, as several of them were so goggly-eyed over anything Japan – ha 🙂
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That teacher is so wonderful. She even gave me something nice, which very few people did in America. I wonder what she will do retired? I hope she uses her talents for God somewhere, and inspire others to a selfless life, like your examplor did.