Thursday, October 11, 2007

Leila

Wednesday is the day that we've set aside as a family to go hang out at our new business and talk with students all afternoon. It can be a difficult afternoon if the baby hasn't napped, like yesterday, but the students generally enjoy having the children there. Kevin has made friends with two guys who sit and talk with him for hours. Randy and I also each teach a seminar while we're there.

Yesterday, after my seminar ended, two of the girls came downstairs to the conversation room and sat down with me. After a while one of them mentioned something her son had done when he was two weeks old. Naturally, I asked her how old he is now. She answered that he had died in his sleep about two weeks ago when he was two months old. Leila talked for a long time about her son and showed me all of the pictures she had taken of him with her cell phone.

That was a hard conversation. She feels like she must have done something wrong, that God is punishing her, that she didn't do a good job taking care of her baby. The other girl with us quickly said, "No, it isn't your fault. God willed it to happen." We had the chance to talk for a little while about how God created a perfect world without death, but that man's sin had brought with it all sorts of terrible things, including death.

Please pray for Leila. She's trying to stay busy, even taking classes less than a month after this tragedy, trying to find some way to cope with this awful loss. Please pray for those of us who come into contact with her. We need wisdom to know how to minister to her and to show her the only true source of hope.

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