Memorial Service for Two Mothers in Myanmar

Monday we held a Memorial service for two Moms of students from Myanmar.  Our students don't have the money to fly home for the funerals, and in any case burial would have been almost immediate, they wouldn't have made it back in time.  So the International Student Fellowship of our Lutheran School of Theology held a Memorial service in our chapel, as evening fell. Our Chinese chaplains led the service and the prayers.  Our American English teacher read the scripture. And each of the two now motherless students rose up and paid tribute to their Moms, struggling in poignantly broken English to express their love and honor for them, as well as their heartfelt gratitude for the "mothers, sisters, brothers" who surrounded them on this sad occasion.

Both the Indonesian students (above... be sure to click on the video to listen to it!) and the Myanmar students sang songs of comfort, and together we remembered the words from Scripture:

 Isaiah 66:13 

As a mother comforts her child,
                           so will I comfort you;
  and

from Matthew 12:49-50

    “Here are my mother and my brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (words of Jesus)

and 

from I Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.  

But the greatest of these is love.