We had received news of his passing
weeks earlier from their small village further North in Mozambique.
Young and healthy, his death came as a sudden shock and surprise. The
news rocked us and brought us to tears over and over again-but
nothing could have prepared us for seeing his family again. An
incredible missionary family that served for years on the field and
spreading God's unwavering love wherever they went. When they got off
the bus with their many suitcases carrying the last of their worldly
possessions and memories of Mozambique, you could see the tiredness
after many sleepless night and painful loss in his widow's face as
she began to tear up once again. I wondered briefly whether I was
supposed to maintain a strong encouraging front or utter compassion
for the loss and despair before tears started streaming
uncontrollably down my face.
I truly can not even begin to fathom
the harsh realities that lie before their family having just lost
their father, best friend, husband, and so much more. Their young
children, two under the age of seven, a pre-teen and a teenager
continue to inspire me. Their smiles, their playfulness, their
laughter, their ability to look out and care for one another in good
times and bad is truly remarkable. They walk out a faith far beyond
their years in their simple everyday actions.
To me, the most touching moment of all
was when we gathered to pray for their family before they left for
America. They have faithfully answered the calling God put on their
lives and made Mozambique their home, and despite holding American
passports, I'm sure that going back to America feels like they are
leaving their home rather than returning to it. Before they left for
the airport, we asked their children how they could pray for them.
Their oldest child paused for a minute and I expected her to say
something like, “pray that we would make new friends in America,
that we would fit in at school, that we would have enough money, that
the constant pain would stop, that the aching would go away”...but
she said nothing of the sort. Instead, she lifted her eyes and said
boldly, “please pray that we would never loose our faith.”
I'll never forget her words. I don't
understand God's ways. I don't understand why sometimes we pray,
people are healed and other times we pray and people die. I have so
many unanswered questions. And yet through it all, I know that God is
good and that He is faithful even when we can't see His purposes in
it all. My hope and prayer for my friend's children, for myself, and
for anyone reading this, that in good times and in bad, in joy and in
despair, in times of gain and in times of utter loss, that we too,
would never loose our faith.
