I have a heavy heart tonight. I just finished crocheting a little baby hat for one of the babies in Masi. It's a township just a couple of miles from the Living Hope office. Masiphumelele is the official name, but everyone calls it Masi. There was a fire in Masi early Saturday morning. Three adults and one 2-year-old child died in the fire. That's hard enough to take, but the story behind the story is crushing. One of the adults who died was the grandmother of the child. She had just recently moved in with her 22-year-old daughter and got her ID booklet. It was a long time coming from the government. When the fire started in their primitive house, the grandma grabbed the child and put her on her back. They got out in time, but the grandmother turned back into the flaming house, with the little girl still on her back, to retrieve her new ID booklet. She never got out again; the flames and smoke overcame her...and her granddaughter. I met the young woman who had lost both her mother and her child. She sat on a chair with the pain reflected in her eyes. I went to her and told her I was sorry for her loss. She nodded. When I hugged her, she held on to me, a stranger, like she was drowning in her sorrow. I sat opposite her in a chair and asked if I could pray for her and took her hands. I prayed that God would ease her pain and give her comfort and help her get through this.
Not only did we give her clothes, but made sure she had bedding and food.
It's her haunting eyes that stay with me tonight. Now I remember the same look in the eyes that I had seen before, years ago: after hurricane Katrina, I went with a medical group to a town near New Orleans. The people there had that same look, that same haunted look in their eyes, like they had awakened too many mornings to realize the nightmare was real.
Please pray for this young woman. God knows her name. He has it engraved on the palm of His hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment