About Tears

Construction on our new church in Chilomoni - going great!

I can’t count how many times Rachel and I have stood breathless; dumbfounded by different experiences we’ve had here. Mountain vistas, incredible wildlife, hilarious laughter, good times with friends and strangers, watching God be God.

This blog has been an endeavor to tell our story, and it would not be complete without sharing a few of the moments when we’ve held our breath not in awe but in horror, or out of a fear that if we were to relax enough to breathe, a flood of tears would overcome us as well.

We have prayed for the sick and elderly, only to attend their funerals a few days later. In fact the woman you see Rachel chatting with in front of her home a few blog posts ago has died. A month or so ago we attended the funeral of a 2 year old girl who was diagnosed and treated for Malaria when she was actually sick with Pneumonia. I pray that we could learn from Malawians and the freedom they have in expressing their grief. The tiny casket was laid on a grass mat in the middle of the dirt road. All neighbors were present; men on one side of the road and women on the other. Mother, grandmother, and aunts were wailing loudly in grief around the body and could be heard blocks away. I was one of the few men crying (and trying to hide it) while across the street Rachel joined a chorus of women weeping openly. The entire community made the half mile walk in procession to the graveyard where the baby was buried along with her clothes, toys, and sippy cup. With no money for a headstone, a plastic tub was placed, then split open with a shovel to prevent theft.

Recently we met Elifa, a little girl who sang songs to us that she learned in school. She is dying of AIDS, the same disease that already claimed her parents’ lives. Dyson is a 2 year old boy with HIV living under the care of his grandmother. When his mother saw the test results, she disappeared.

This past Sunday I was in the government hospital visiting a few church members who were there for various reasons. The walk to the children’s ward is like something out of a horror film. A group of women weeping over the unmoving body of an infant. Always two but sometimes three sickly children squeezed into each tiny bed. Hundreds of suffering children and worried parents sharing space and air meant for far fewer. No doctors, two nurses. The adult ward is an open space packed with beds and more pain, blood, and hopelessness than should be mentioned here.

We have been learning a lot. We’ve learned that suffering is so real and so raw and so common. We’ve learned a lot about God. God is not blind to our pain, our heartache, and our suffering under the whip of slavery to sin and death. In fact his constant activity from Eden until today has been an effort to destroy suffering and bring his family back together under one roof. Back to the beauty and serenity of Eden.

Imagine the patient presence of a family member at the bedside. The caring and curative touch of a good doctor. The prayer and concern of the church. An arm around your shoulder. These are all shadows, tiny spoonfuls of the power of God that will someday soon comfort those who have suffered - and they'll be comforted for eternity! On one of the last pages of Earth’s history book, it will be written that a great trumpet blast shook the sky while the earth and the sea violently gave up their dead. Under a light and presence more blinding than the sun, the bodies of those who died in Christ were transformed in a moment to become something far greater than flesh and bone. These new temples are made of material not found on the periodic table of elements and are immune to suffering from disease, deterioration, and death. Christ’s mission is to redeem us from all of the effects of sin; spiritual and physical. Someday souls which have been born again will rejoice in bodies which have also been born again. And for all those who would choose to join in, suffering will be no more. Our blessed hope!

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:14