Rare Species

A Pleasant Encounter

Today, a friend accompanied me to Universiti Hospital to see Josiah Wee, the son of a good friend. Josiah is bedridden at the moment and needs to be looked after all the time and so it is good if concerned friends can be around him to read and talk to him.

I had a pleasant surprise seeing a gentle and sweet lass moving busily around him seeing to his needs physically and giving him emotional boost by talking and reading to him. She is petite and gentle and at one look I thought she was still in school. I casually asked her what she was doing and she told me "Tesl"...teaching English as Second Language. I looked at her for a full second before I asked again "You mean, you are a teacher already?" She said she was waiting for her posting and would be glad to know it soon.

"Where did you ask to teach?" Johor or East Malaysia she reiterated and continued "I will go where God sends me." Oh she is so in the Lord. She is matured, focused and seeks God's will so faithfully. It is difficult to find this species these days. Later, she surprised us further by saying that her elder sister is already teaching in a polytechnical institution and her younger sister is also enrolled in a teacher's college to ensue the teaching profession. She confesses that she doesn't know why all of them have become teachers and cheerfully pointed out that it must be her mother's prayers.

On the way home, I shared with my friend that it is indeed difficult to find girls in such a category especially in the city where the environment and the ethos are so different. Girls who grow up in small towns sure can be of a different species as compared to their urban contemporaries. But we will not compare...that may cause antagonism.

But I am really glad that there are some who still choose to be teachers not out of compulsion but out of love and God's calling.