H1N1 used by God

The hallway lights were covered with black and purple cellophane. Fake bloody limbs and skeleton faces adorned every door. Classes had spent the last few days learning this week’s “special” English vocabulary: ghost, witch, devil, haunted, vampire. Everyone was preparing costumes, game stations, and movies for the stay-overnight celebration today of All Hallows’ eve (2 days early to accommodate the school week).

And at 2:00pm, the announcement came: a student had gone home with a fever earlier this morning, and it was confirmed as the first case of H1N1 at our school. The party is cancelled!

As I heard the news, I rejoiced. Not that I’m glad the student contracted the virus (and she should be fine, it is a mild case). Not that I’m a grumpy bum who hates smiling kids (though when they are hyped up with sugar, I do get a little grumpy). But the way we were set up to commemorate this special “Western holiday” was almost exclusively focused on the supernaturally demonic – a world that is all too real for many of our students’ and Taiwanese staffs’ families. (Unfortunately, most overseas teachers brush it off as superstition and insist that it is merely all in good fun). Praise God for moving His hand to halt such macabre festivities. May this new development serve as a sobering reflection on the real nature of evil in our world.

Sample of our hallway décor. Isn’t it lovely? Floating masks with Chinese spells & incantations stuck in their mouths.

Carmen Yan

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