Urgency

 Baan Jai Diaow Girls

Days come and go.  English classes, meetings, dinners, market runs.  Semesters begin, exams end.  New students join the dorm community. Days come and go.

Then one day, by the front door books were stacked next to bags of clothes, a lamp, and a basket of shampoo and soap.  I pitched in to help load all the stuff into a truck, then I waved as Bia climbed in the back to balance the pile of old textbooks as the truck drove off down the road. 

Later that same night, Aon shared something with me. 

"Julia?" She called quietly over the three-quarters high wall separating our rooms.  "Are you sleeping yet?"
"No, not yet."
"Do you want to know something?"
"What?"
"If I pass all my exams, at the end of the month I won't live here any more."
"Where will you go?"
"To work downtown and live with my younger sister."
"Wow." I didn't have much more to say.  In the back of my mind, I knew some of our girls would be graduating soon, but the reality of it coming hadn't crossed my mind recently.

"Are you excited?" I continued.
"Yes, I want to work, but I'll miss all our brothers and sisters here at BJD."
"We will miss you too....you'll come visit us, won't you?"
"Often."  Aon was quiet for a moment as we both considered the sentences that had just been exchanged.  "You're the first person at BJD I've told."  She added.
"I'll let you tell everyone else when you're ready." I assured her.


Both of our rooms went silent for a while.  My heart was sad as I pondered the repercussions of time passed.  Moving on is good, but it's never easy to see someone go, especially when that someone has become a sister.


"Julia?"  The voice came quietly over my wall again. "Don't for get me, ok?"
"I won't forget you, for sure."

It was almost more than I could take.  I'm not ready to see these young girls confidently stride off into their next season of life.  Both Aon and Bia I first met three and a half years ago as awkward freshmen, unsure of what their first semester at university would hold.  Coming from villages in the far regions of Thailand, the Big City left them wide-eyed and overwhelmed.  Now these women are making plans and stepping forward into a new life.

Have we taught them enough?  Did discipleship from the past years reach deep enough into their hearts?  Will the Bible studies come back to mind as they make more life-changing decisions?

Ultimately this leaves me with the opportunity to pray, trust, stand alongside and encourage.  But it also leaves me with a renewed since of urgency.