This is a monumental day here in Nyala for SP. As a relief organization we tend to be reactionary on many things - often to our demise. So last year at the end of the really hot season we finally got an airconditioner approved for our TV room. But it hasn't been used much because the weather cooled off. So now that the really cold season has passed we are installing our hot water heaters for the showers. For the last nine months I have been boiling water on the stove and pouring it into a bucket so I can have a warm bucket bath. But this ritual is no longer required as of February 6, 2007 (at least until it breaks and we have to order parts in). I have been claiming lately that the reason for me not getting up in the morning to run has been that it's too cold and takes too long to have a warm bucket bath at 7 in the morning. So that excuse has suited me just fine for the last couple of months. But now with hot water heaters I have run out of excuses - so if anyone has some good ones for me please share. But really I am so excited about my new hot water heater and just think of how much better I will smell now. Really everyone benfits from it.
I also wanted to share a sad story with you. It may seem weird to talk about silly things like hot water heaters and then a sad story like this in one blog but this is what life is like. Enjoy the good things and still greive over the sad things.
My finance guy here in Nyala goes every Sunday morning to the prison and spends time with some of the inmates. He will just go and listen to them, help them with personal needs and sometimes teaches and prays for them. So often he will come to work on Sunday afternoon with very interesting stories. This Sunday he called me and
told me that he was in prison (he meant that he was visiting but it scared me for a moment) and that there was a Christian man that died the night before and there was no one to take care of the body. No one knew how to bury a Christian man so the responsibility fell on him. So he washed the body, dressed him again, took a group of inmates out to the grave yard, dug a grave and burried the body. This man I guess was a military man that spent three years in a military prison and lived off of maybe one meal a day until he was transferred to Nyala two weeks ago. My guy didn't even know the man and only briefly interacted with him the week before. A couple of things really hit my heart when I heard this. One is how horrible it would be to die all alone with no one around you that loves and cares for you. His family has no idea that he has died and they will never be able to be there for his last breath. To die alone - I really don't wish that on anyone, even though it happens all the time. The other thing that really struck me was how selfless and courageous my finance guy was to take on the responsibility to look after a complete stranger's body. He could have walked away and hoped someone would do something but he didn't he took on something that was really beyond him and gave a stranger the respect that we could only hope someone would do for us after we pass. It is the most real expample I have ever seen of the good samaritan story in the bible. I am in awe of his actions and have so much to learn from his display of love and compassion.
The good thing about this story is that I hope this man that passed went from the worst place on earth - starving to death in a dirty dark prison in Darfur- to the most beautiful pain free place he could ever imagine.
I also wanted to share a sad story with you. It may seem weird to talk about silly things like hot water heaters and then a sad story like this in one blog but this is what life is like. Enjoy the good things and still greive over the sad things.
My finance guy here in Nyala goes every Sunday morning to the prison and spends time with some of the inmates. He will just go and listen to them, help them with personal needs and sometimes teaches and prays for them. So often he will come to work on Sunday afternoon with very interesting stories. This Sunday he called me and
told me that he was in prison (he meant that he was visiting but it scared me for a moment) and that there was a Christian man that died the night before and there was no one to take care of the body. No one knew how to bury a Christian man so the responsibility fell on him. So he washed the body, dressed him again, took a group of inmates out to the grave yard, dug a grave and burried the body. This man I guess was a military man that spent three years in a military prison and lived off of maybe one meal a day until he was transferred to Nyala two weeks ago. My guy didn't even know the man and only briefly interacted with him the week before. A couple of things really hit my heart when I heard this. One is how horrible it would be to die all alone with no one around you that loves and cares for you. His family has no idea that he has died and they will never be able to be there for his last breath. To die alone - I really don't wish that on anyone, even though it happens all the time. The other thing that really struck me was how selfless and courageous my finance guy was to take on the responsibility to look after a complete stranger's body. He could have walked away and hoped someone would do something but he didn't he took on something that was really beyond him and gave a stranger the respect that we could only hope someone would do for us after we pass. It is the most real expample I have ever seen of the good samaritan story in the bible. I am in awe of his actions and have so much to learn from his display of love and compassion.The good thing about this story is that I hope this man that passed went from the worst place on earth - starving to death in a dirty dark prison in Darfur- to the most beautiful pain free place he could ever imagine.
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