Watching Grief

I have never been good at seeing, hearing, or watching grief.  Today I was thrown into what I am not good at with a twist.  I went to church with Tessa, tried to sing the songs, followed along with the scriptures, and tried to guess at the main theme of the message based on the passages.  I tried my hand at singing the songs but Malagasy on paper and Malagasy spoken are two rather different things, and it was more just humming the tune.  Near the end of the service one of the guys stood up and made an announcement.  Tessa didn’t understand it enough to translate it but the whole congregation began to cry.  We finally figured out that Mark had received word during the service that his mom, Mamy, had died suddenly in Tana, where Mark is from.  Mark’s dad is a pastor in Tana and Mamy had been very active in connecting the church there with the church here in Toliara.  She had a huge heart for the church here and had done a lot of work with the youth, so they were all very close to her.  Tessa had been very close with their whole family when she lived in Tana last year.  It was so hard to watch the grief of all of those around me and not even be able to tell them how sorry I was with words.  After church as we were all shaking hands all I could do was try to convey with my face that I cared for them in their pain.  Even at home with Tessa, as sad as I was to see her hurting and as much as I wanted to comfort her I could not identify with her pain, not having known Mamy as she did.  I pray that through this God will strengthen my heart for the body of Christ as one whole, pain sharing group.  

Tessa and I are flying to Tana for the funeral.  Please be praying for the family, Mark is just recovering from Typhoid and is on his way to Tana now, he has three sisters, one of whom is about to have her first baby.  Please be praying for the church there and here.  Everyone loved Mamy so much!  One person said, “We have all lost our mother.”