Grief

As you can imagine, our community here in South Africa is full of hardships, but this past month I've really been thrown into the depth of these challenges. With my new role under the leadership of the church in Capricorn, I've been able to focus on individual families, focus on their needs and get into the muddy waters of "community ministry."

Specifically, I've been on 3 cases that have been related to death/grief.
1. Many of our families have absent fathers. Recently, one of our youth met her father on his death-bed. She's now coping with grief in the loss of a parent, mourning not only death but also the hope that she would/could know her father. The whole family has taken this hard and are all grieving in their own ways.

2. We have another case where a child lost his mother about a year ago. He was placed in the home of an aunt; the child is now grieving and the delayed nature of the grief is hard for the family to grasp. I've met with the Social Worker and trying to help this child flesh-out his loss, remember his mother and also communicate with his new family.

3. I attended a funeral on Saturday. One of the families in Capricorn lost a son violently last week - this being the 2nd child they've lost this year. The whole community has surrounded this family in their time of grief, but with the loss of a young one, our earthly mortality is in our face and anger is often pronounced.



Pray for our community as they face life and death.
Pray that in each of these 3 cases, God would guide and lead our church to support and comfort.
Pray for the Salvation of Capricorn. Many of these that have died recently have not known Christ as Savior. As a body of Christ, we, The Church have a responsibility to share the Gospel so that all may know the hope of Salvation in Christ. Pray that our church is bold and obedient.
Pray as each of these families grieve and ask many questions - none being too big for God - but pray the questions lead to trust and faith in Christ, not backing away or doubt.