Deaths

Our church has had two deaths this week. Sunday evening, an older woman passed away. She had been sick for a while and every Sunday for the past month, people had gone after church to pray for her. Her husband took care of her and some of her daughters, but a few weeks ago the daughters stopped coming daily to bathe her. On Sunday, she passed away. Joél went to the initial sitting with the family on Sunday evening. The final prayer (they have three days of prayer—the funeral and then prayers for the next two days) was yesterday. She was baptized in the church and was ready to go to heaven.

Then this morning (Thursday), a young man from the church passed away. He was the husband of one of the women who comes to church. He died from malaria. He leaves three small children, Musa, age 5, Fiusha, age 3 and Moises, 7 months. It’s heavy. So unexpected, so young, what will Jilda, his wife do?

I’ll go visit the family later today. In this culture, it’s important that someone from families nearby makes an appearance at funerals. Joél’s presence Sunday night was sufficient for that passing. I’ll go today for this family.