Early last week we were greeted with the announcement by Stephen, one of our local workers who is the security manager at EMI and lives in the same compound as Shanthi and I, that his Christian dad has just passed away. We had been praying for him the prior week as he was not feeling well. This is the person who stood with Stephen during his wedding and is similar to a godparent. Stephen, visibly shaken, left work early and took the 8 hour bus ride back to his village to attend the burial. On Wednesday, another one of our local workers, Semei, our office administrator, took his twin brother to the hospital since he was not feeling well. The hospital ran some tests and notified them that the brother had AIDS. The hospital gave out free ARV's and encouraged the brother to take them regularly. Saturday morning Semei notified me that his brother had just passed away. Apparently, the ARV's were too strong for his already weakened body and may have contributed to his death. So, on Sunday morning Semei came to our house and we helped him with some of the arrangements for his brothers burial which was happening that afternoon a few hours away from Kampala. Then on Sunday night, about midnight, there is a knock on our door and Stephen (who had just returned from his village the day before) tells us that his oldest daughter, Comfort, has just passed away. She was almost 3 years old and had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy for some time. Stephen said that as he was checking on her before bed, he felt her stomach, noticed that it was very tight and then suddenly she exhaled, her stomach become soft and she died. This morning at 4:00 am I took one of our workers to the bus park with Comfort's body so that he could take her to the village for burial. Stephen and his family followed about an hour later and the burial will be on Tuesday.
Both Stephen and Semei are part of the leadership team in our office. They are great men who we look to regularly for advice regarding how to live in this culture and how to effectively operate the office. Stephen has been with EMI since early 2004 and Semei since 2006. We love these guys and have a great deal of respect for each of them. We ask that you would pray for them during this time. Ask God to bring them peace and comfort and to provide for their needs.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." - Matthew 5:4
1 comment:
Oh My. What a trio of loss. We are thankful for your presence to comfort these men since your relationships have been so significant. I believe that was part of God's grace. Praying for all, Nancy
Post a Comment