MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“COSMOPOLIS, Wash. (AP) – The Muslim 11th-grader in northern Iraq approached her Christian teacher one day last fall and declared quietly, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ She’d been reading about Jesus and believed what she read, she explained, but her parents would never let her become a Christian.

The teacher, Jeremiah Small, responded in what those who knew him described as a characteristically thoughtful manner.

‘I encouraged her to consider what she had read and explained that it wasn’t my place to tell her to be a Christian,’ he wrote in an email to friends that day, asking them to pray for her conversion. ‘Keep reading and let the object of your faith take shape and its character be proven.’

Small, of Cosmopolis in southwestern Washington, was shot to death Thursday at the Classical School of the Medes, a private Christian academy in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, in Iraq’s most peaceful region. The gunman, an 18-year-old, then shot himself in the head as other students scattered from the room.

No motive was evident; students reported that a brief quarrel preceded the shooting, but the cause was unclear.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Servant Group International, which employed him, said it was stunned. Small had taught history and literature at the school since 2005, returning year after year because of the changes and hope he saw in the lives of his students, the organization said in a news release.

‘He was a beloved teacher and friend,’ the statement said. ‘His love for his students extended beyond the classroom, and he regularly led hiking trips, camping trips and other outdoor activities with the students.’

Small was the eldest of seven siblings from a deeply religious family. His parents, Dan and Rebecca, ran the Shiloh Bible Camp in Cosmopolis for about a decade. Dan Small confirmed his son’s death on his Facebook page, writing, ‘Our oldest, Jeremiah was martyred in Kurdistan this a.m.,’ though it wasn’t clear if there was a religious motive for the killing.

Jeff Dokkestul, a board member at Servant Group International, insisted that the purpose of the three Medes schools in the region is to provide a classical education – not to proselytize to the students, who are overwhelmingly Muslim. His organization provides some of the curriculum and teachers, he said.

Servant Group’s website lists its mission: ‘Through outreach, education, and discipleship, SGI teams work to share the truth and beauty of Jesus with our Muslim friends. Our hope is to see the gospel bless and transform Muslim families and communities for generations to come.'” Read more.