Written by: Sarah
My heart has been heavy this week.
On Tuesday night we got a call that was crushing. Our friend, I., called us and told us his son, Baby Husseini,
died the night before. I first
introduced you to him on our June 15th blog “Pray for Baby”.
Since the time I wrote that blog, God has answered our prayers
and saved this baby. No one in the village ever thought he would
survive past a day or two, but God gave him life for four months. He was eating and growing. Churches in America were praying for him and
even sent money to provide formula for the family since the mom’s milk did not
come in. Jody saw him 4 days before he
died and said Husseini finally looked like a newborn. He was no longer a sickly and little skin and
bones baby. He was filling out and
looking good.
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| Thomas, I., Baby Husseini, and Logan. This pic was taken about a month ago. |
Wednesday morning after we heard the news, I went to visit
the family. They looked normal. They didn’t
look like they had just faced the huge tragedy of losing a child. The other siblings were playing around as
always. When I told L. (his mom) that I
had heard about the death of Husseini, she simply replied, “He’s not here.” She told me he had a cold and they took him
to the clinic, bought him medicine, but he died. There were no tears in her eyes. It was all very matter of fact. He was buried around midnight out behind the
doctor’s office. And that was that. We asked a relative of the family if anyone
cried when Husseini died. He said
no.
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| April, Caitlin, and Husseini's 3 older siblings |
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| L., Husseini's mom. Cooking a meal in her kitchen for the goodbye party for our interns last month |
So this week my heart’s been heavy for three reasons.
One – I miss Husseini and I am sad I hadn’t been over to
seem him recently. I went out in the
village Monday morning and thought about stopping by to see the family, but I
didn’t. I regret that. I wish I could have seen him one more time. I wish I could have taken one more picture of
him to record his progress and remember him by. I wish I
knew he was sick. I wish I could have
held him in my arms and prayed for him.
Two – I don’t understand why God allowed this. Why did he allow Husseini to survive through
that first month, just to take him at month four? I saw God save this baby who seemed
impossible to save. No one in the
village expected him to make it as long as he did. I thought of him as the
miracle baby. I had fantasies of who
this baby would become – a Christian, an evangelist, maybe a pastor in our
village! I felt that God had certainly
saved this baby because He had something amazing in store for his life. Now what?
I can’t make sense of it all, but I can say I completely trust God in
all this, I am even able to praise Him…He has given and He has taken away…but I
just wish I understood it all. It doesn’t
make sense to me, and that brings a heaviness upon my heart. I may never know the reason behind this, but
I can rest assured knowing God has a plan and purpose behind it.
Three – It’s very disturbing to me that no one shed a tear
for this baby. Death is so much a way of
life here. Everyone’s had children
die. Growing up they had siblings
die. It’s natural, normal, and
expected. So when someone dies, they
say, “It was God’s will.” Of course
their god is not the God of the Bible, but I do agree that God is sovereign over
life and death. But that doesn’t mean
death should just be shrugged off and accepted as a part of life. If you do that, you are overlooking the
value of human life. Every human being
is made in the image of God. When that image is stamped out, we must grieve.
And David writes in my favorite Psalm “For you formed my inward parts; you
knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it
very well.” (139:13-14) Husseini is one of God’s wonderful works. Every breath
he breathed in his four short months, brought praise to the true God – his creator
and maker. And when that wonderful work
is taken away from us, we must grieve.
God’s creation, made in His image, has fallen to the plague of
death. I think about Jesus and
Lazarus. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept…and
Jesus knew that He would soon be raising him back from the dead. So why did He weep? I think it’s because we are called to weep
over death. Death is the outcome of sin
and is contrary to everything God is. So
I don’t think this culture is numb to death because they are surrounded by
it. Instead, I believe this culture is
numb to death because they are without the gospel of Jesus Christ. They live in darkness and are blinded to the
truth. And that lostness of so many people brings the most
heaviness to my heart.
Pray for Husseini’s family.
They have heard the gospel many times, but have not believed.
Pray for the Songhai people.
Pray that God may continue calling out His sheep to follow Him and that
this culture would change for the glory of God - that one day, every life would
be seen as precious in His sight and that when death does come, weeping will
follow, along with hope of eternal life for all those who believe in Jesus.
