a long day full of emotions!

Well . . .
Sundays have to be the hardest day of the week for me here. I think it is partly because we have such a phenomenal church at home and I desperately miss it. Amazing worship, challenging word, trustworthy nursery and kids ministry programs. We really don’t have that here, we are working towards some of these things, but the culture is so different, some of these things are not really of value to the people here.
We just got word that three of the youth boys at our church were in a major accident. When we got home we got word that they are all sons of a recently widowed lady in our church. It was just confirmed also that the eldest son was not responding and has died. Not sure if people will remember the boy that Doug talked about often while we were home, Sphiso (the one who came to our door late at night running away from home, and later was baptized by Doug) is one of these three boys. They did send the other boy to Mbabane, I guess he was unconscious at the scene and they knew he would not make it. He also has now been confirmed dead. Sue Drew (other missionaries here and the pastors wife of the International Church) called me to go with her to the store to get some food for the family. We prepared some platters for the family and friends and headed over to the house. Presca, the mother, had just been told of the confirmation of the other sons death. I can’t imagine. Loosing your husband about one month ago and now two of her three sons. The deaths here are way too many and very sad. I have never experienced anything like that, as we drove up to the house you could hear the crying and wailing from outside. I walked in with Sue and placed the food on the table. There had to be at least 12 ladies sitting in the living area all crying. There was crying of kids coming from the other parts of the house, I felt completely helpless. Pastor Stan sent me home to have Doug go and check on Sphiso in the hospital, he was there for at least four hours with him. He said he had to tell Sphiso that the other brother had died too (he only knew that one of them had died). What an amazingly long and emotional day.
I know this entry is a bit somber . . .
It was amazing to me how Kylea responded to this all. I have the kids rest every day, not only do they need it, but also I think I sometimes need it more! When resting they must read books, write, or just relax. Kylea got her little spiral notebook out and wrote about how she heard me talking on the phone about three boys being in a car accident. She wrote that she prayed four times for them and knew that Jesus would heal them and make them all better so they could go home. It was very sweet, but as I left with Sue, Doug had to have a conversation about how two of the boys actually died and one was still alive. She did ok, big topic for a 7 year old though.

So we are off to bed now, long day. Lord gives me wisdom and a better perspective on life.