Sad News

We went to church tonight at 4:30. Our service went well. I had a little class for my kids in the Sunday School room, while one of our young men from Bamenda came to preach for the adults. After church, Hillary informed us that our neighbors little baby died. Ben has been discipling Christopher and his wife on a weekly basis. She had a little baby in January of this year and little Anneline (I'm not sure how to spell her name) has been sick from the time she was born. She had a constant cough, and we helped them financially on several occasions so that they could take her to the hospital and get the medicine that she needed. They recently diagnosed her with asthma, and she seemed to be improving, but she took a turn for the worse this last week and died at 8 this morning. We immediately left church and went to their home. We told the kids no talking...no questions...only respond if someone greets them. The house was somber, and many people were there visiting to comfort JoAnne. Christopher was actually on his way to the hospital to get some different medicine for her. They had to call him and tell him to come home. It was very sad...and always very interesting to see how people grieve. The culture is so different here. I wanted to sit there and cry and just thinking about losing a 6 month old baby brought tears to my eyes, but they are dry eyed, and crying is considered shameful. I don't know...sometimes you just need to cry. It helps you grieve. I feel bad that JoAnn can't break down in front of her visitors for fear that they will scold her. Pray for this family as they go through this time of trial. We also learned that this is the second child she has lost...her first baby died as well. We don't know any details, only that it wasn't a newborn. So, she is having to go through this all over again...I can't even imagine. We visited with her for about 10 minutes and tried to comfort her. She told us a little bit of what happened, then Ben had a word of prayer with all that were in the room. The weather seemed to match the spirit of the evening...cold and dreary.

I didn't get a picture for today (shame on me), and I wanted to post a picture of little Anneline as a newborn, but Ben couldn't find the picture. He thinks he deleted it b/c it came out blurry. If we do end up finding it in the future, I'll be sure to post it.

I'm thankful that this family has recently trusted Christ, and pray that they find HIM as their source of comfort during this difficult time.