before i finish up on my post on the wonderful people we’ve met in timisoara – and i am fully aware there are a lot of overdue “part II” posts – i wanted to update y’all on a friend i met back in kampala, uganda.
several months ago, i introduced you to saul here. today, i got a brief email from one of our many friends from bugolobi church of the resurrection. kenneth was one of the youth, a university student, i got to knock on doors with throughout the flats. he, alex, and i met with, encouraged and prayed for saul. i know at least a couple of you prayed with us, for which i’m so thankful.
kenneth tells me a lot of good and bad has been going on back in bugolobi, including saul’s passing away.
in short, that sucks.
then a bunch of other things come to mind. aside from being glad that he’s not suffering anymore but instead is at our father’s side, basking in heavenly freedom, i feel let down and that i let him and his family down. i wonder if he’d still be around if i hadn’t let him drop off my radar. did i not want his healing badly enough? was my faith weak?
and i’ve already written about the cycle of arriving and leaving here, how it’s hard but good, but dealing with stuff like this is just plain hard. yes, God stretches my heart to make room for so many of His people, but i don’t get to go much deeper with each name, face and heart. i want to share in the sorrow of the congregation, especially his daughter nelly.
compassion, to me, is sharing the hurting with other people so that you get closer to them and hopefully so they hurt a little less. and right now, it seems kinda hard to do that without actually being there. and that adds to the sucks of it.
in the end, though, it isn’t about me, though, is it? right now, i bet saul is more than just relieved from the itchiness, the discomfort, pain, isolation. . . he’s free to just be with his Daddy in heaven. so, God, help me be happy for him, too.
You promised those who grieve are blessed because they’ll be comforted; please keep your promise to his family.
