The year's beginning doesn't bode well

A couple of our students lost their father over the summer; one of our classified staff (a codgety old maid--sorry for the lack of PC--who is loved yet...) has been fighting to live and she will not survive, most likely; one of our former students was in a wreck that nearly killed her, may still kill her father, and did kill his girlfriend; one of my former students lost his grandfather over the weekend; now one of our teachers (also one of our churchmates) lost her husband suddenly over the weekend. He was 43. He was a juvenile diabetic due to a heavy-equipment accident when he was 30. He was a smoker. His heart gave up.

At least the family has hope of seeing him again one day, but still, the pain when we walked into the building and saw the boys and Paige yesterday multiplied when Janet walked in about half-way through the song service. The whole service felt stupid--useless, pointless. Few cared to sing songs or listen to a sermon. But at the end, Mike had us all sit down and he pointed out a family that was hurting. He asked the silent (how often does that happen?) congregation to share anything that may have helped us through a similar time. About 8 people shared publicly. Many more shared privately. It was a bittersweet time. Todd was so quiet that many of us felt we didn't know him, yet we did. I am so glad Mike handled it the way he did at the end. Sometimes I think Janet feels a little "on-the-fringes" there, but maybe it's just my feelings being cast upon her in my mind. Whatever the true situation, though, yesterday had to show her that we care. And she has a school building full of people who do, too.