Kim Essenburg serves with Christian Reformed World Missions by teaching English 10 at Christian Academy in Japan. Kim shares student responses to a 1-point, open-ended test question on Elie Wiesel’s Night.

Question: What is one other significant thing you learned or thought about this unit that you have not yet had an opportunity to show on this test?
 
Student responses:

• I learned how because we are made in God’s image, we should not hurt ourselves or others, because we are hurting God and His wonderful creation.
• We read and see cruel events through newspaper or TV or in our daily life. When we see such things, we begin to feel sorry for the people who are suffering and try to become compassionate. However, we only keep that feeling for a moment and go back to our usual life. Therefore, I learned that in order to show a real compassion like God does to us, we need to take action and try to make a change.
• It’s so true how we see something as terrible, but we don’t do anything. We say, “That’s somebody else’s problem,” but really, as God’s people, we should do something.
• I learned clearly why this world can’t survive without God. Without God, there would be no equality among peoples, and nobody would have value. And if this were the case, there would be no reason for any of us to regard any other human with any kind of respect or dignity. Everything would be equally meaningless, wars and chaos would ensue, people would be killing each other, and no one could survive. But God gives us meaning, purpose, and a reason to live.