We would like to believe that everything in our life has a purpose. How can we use science and logic to prove such a thing? Maybe it isn't logic at all. Rather it is simply faith and optimism that everything has a purpose. It was for a purpose that we came to Guatemala when we did. We met these hospitable, generous, happy people at the time we did for a purpose.
The story is that Brenda, the wife to Dr. Tito (the founder of La Mision), the mother to two sons, 15 and 10 years old, and the mother of La Mision, has a brain tumor. In our Animal Physiology class, we learned that the central nervous system is encased with a hard, compacted bone that doesn't give a lot of room for expansion. The brain is a dangerous place for a tumor. The more space a tumor takes up, the more it presses on other aspects of the brain causing seizures, mood swings, headaches, leaving no room for the brain itself. Brenda is the second mother to all of these Guatemalans we have grown to love in such a short time. Nino, Samuel, David, Carlos, Dr. Kenny, Dr. Allan, Alex, Little Kenny -- each of them look up to Brenda and Tito as second parents. Brenda is not doing well. Our team sees the sadness and despair creeping into the faces of our new Guatemalan family, and it pains us to see them hurting. It pains me to see a good fifteen-year-old boy watch his mother die. It pains me to see a great Guatemalan family struggle to lose someone they love so dearly, and I take in all my loved ones, one at a time, to appreciate them. So now, we prepare. The team prepares for a long journey ahead. We wait for that one call that is going to change it all for our companions, and potentially move us in a way we never knew before. We prepare ways to comfort them, and yet, nothing seems like enough to give them peace, except prayer. I prayed a long prayer tonight with the group for what will be done in the lives of our Guatemalan brothers.
"We are just looking for peace in a world that is so hard on us sometimes." I prayed for everyone's peace because at times that is all we have left when life throws us curve balls. Somehow, we have to believe that it is for a purpose. Brenda is dying. Brenda came into the lives of our brothers, and we came into the lives of our brothers in a difficult time in hopes of a purpose. Whatever God has planned for us, may his will be done. May he grant us the strength to do what we feel we cannot. May he grant us peace to accept the things we cannot change. May he grant us the comfort to believe that there is more to life than just dying.
Tonight, we gathered and sang songs. We worshiped. We laughed. We shed a tears for Brenda and her family. We lifted a prayer in the hopes our service has a bigger impact beyond what we can see in the lives that we influence, including the power to comfort, the ethic to work diligently, and the strength to move mountains.
By faith, we hope to move those mountains.
Amen.
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