I’m on my way back to the US, currently on a 17hr flight from South Africa to Atlanta and pulling up a blank page to offer some rambling personal thoughts. We’ll see where this goes…

A lot has happened since I last wrote to you, our faithful partners in this work…

.

We recently, suddenly lost a friend and fellow US missionary, who was murdered in Lubango.  Much around our friend’s death remains a mystery at this point, as there were no known witnesses, and we understand that a thorough investigation is proceeding by a very competent local team.  I had exchanged several text messages with my friend during the days before he was killed, trying to arrange a time to get together while I was in Lubango.  He and his family came to Angola to move to Cavango, so we got to know each other over the past few years.  He and his family decided to stay in Lubango, but my admiration of his heart to serve remained.  Then, his shocking death… so sudden, unexpected, tragic, with much left unknown, and in someone so young and healthy with so much life ahead…

.

We know that our friend is experiencing the reality of his dreams of a face-to-face, “well done”, encounter with our Father and King and we rejoice with/for him.  We also know the loss of someone precious, inspiring and beautiful, from among us…

.

Our friend and his family have received much compassion and concern from so many around the world, as they now navigate through the same raw emotions we observe almost every day in Cavango in those who lose a loved one…  Many of you have been in a similar, awful place… of sadness, emptiness, anger and confusion… that permits no proper or thoughtful “good-byes”…

.

I have rejoiced to see so many people who knew our friend and his family – their church community, their whole missionary community and their local Angolan friends – beautifully rally around his grieving family, and celebrate the beauty of a life well-lived in caring so selflessly for those hurting. 

.

Seeing such effort in response to this tragedy has also prompted me to ask, “Where are they (we) when the same loss is experienced by a mother, father, son or daughter in the Cavango “bush”? 

.

Marcos arrived in a coma.  At times he groaned in response to pain.  His head wouldn’t flex and when I attempted to bend his head to touch his chin to his chest, his body bent only at the waist. He had a marked fever and his malaria test was positive.  Marcos hadn’t been seen in his village for five days.  Five days that remain a mystery.   No one in Marcos’ family had known his whereabouts and they had been worried and had searched the surrounding woods and fields in vain.  Then, one morning, Marcos stumbled into his village, spoke to no one, collapsed and was brought to us.  There were rumors of an assault but we noted no bruises or cuts on his body and there were no witnesses, reported screams, signs of struggle, etc.  His neck x-ray and body ultrasound were negative for apparent injury.  His labs looked good.  In this rural culture, the circumstances surrounding Marcos’ death will be explained with a spiritual cause, that Marcos was overwhelmed by evil forces or “cursed” by someone, causing his death.  There will be no autopsy, no investigation…. 

.

There were a dozen people in and around Marcos’ bed in our ICU when I arrived the following morning, obviously concerned (distraught) about his condition and prognosis.  More family and friends were on their way.  They remarked about what a great young man he was.  Tears were shed when his condition was explained (we candy-coat nothing in Cavango, always speaking plainly and truthfully).  The whole situation was tragic, sudden, unexpected, with much unknown, and to someone young and healthy with much life ahead… and there were no opportunities for proper and thoughtful “good-byes”.

.

There were no police visits, no search for a crime/cause, no reporters curious about the story of Marcos’ disappearance, no prayer bulletins and no one prayed for Marcos at a local church service.  Marcos was a “Cavango nobody”, one of so many, who died after receiving several days of our aggressive, caring, too-little-too-late treatment/effort for his probable meningitis, along with his malaria… He simply never woke up. 

.

Marcos’ family was heard, embraced and comforted and he and his family were prayed for throughout his last days as they were treated with the dignity that all of our Father’s made-in-His-image creations deserve, with no concern for their past or their socioeconomic status, tribe, religion, etc.  In Cavango we treat known killers the same way we treat friends, we treat drunks the same as those sober, we treat the grateful the same as the ungrateful, the rich the same as the poor and we treat each and every person the way we would treat our mothers/fathers/sons/daughters….

.

Marcos arrived and died an anonymous “nobody”, yet there was much concern for Marcos from his family and community. There was also much concern for Marcos in our Cavango hospital and among our staff.  Cavango exists because many of you demonstrate your care via sacrificial contributions every month to see that “all of the Marcos nobodies” who arrive in Cavango receive proper care.  And we know, of course, because of all of these beautiful partnerships of care, that the vast majority of “nobodies” who arrive in Cavango with severe illnesses survive because of rapid and appropriate diagnosis and treatment.

.

It is Marcos and the general lack of care/concern for him, and those many like him in this region of the world, that motivated us to move to Cavango and that has daily compelled us to stay over these past twelve years.  We simply desire to give the thousands of people of this region access to excellent medical care where there is none.

.

It is also Marcos’ story that motivates most of you reading this to partner with us and to give selflessly so that Marcos, and others like him, are cared for and their grieving families embraced…  and to do anything/everything possible to prevent another person and another family from facing the grief of premature death.

.

Like those several others who arrived this past month with meningitis, and like so many others who arrive with life-threatening illnesses, most who seek help in Cavango survive and return home.  They would otherwise die without the services of this simple hospital and its beautiful staff, which has improved greatly over these past many years.  There is nowhere for hundreds of miles in either direction where another hospital staff, by simply practicing basic, good medical care, would have recognized this meningitis and treated it appropriately.

.

In Cavango, we lose to death about two of every hundred patients.  This is an average of several every week.  This means that ninety-seven or more of every hundred people return home better.  Crazy beautiful statistics, which represent people – sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers and/or sisters…. 

.

Every day (!), many smiling people are given discharge instructions to return home well, after arriving deathly ill.  As is always the case, outcomes are not always pleasant and we recently lost several young people to death, who, like Marcos, waited too long to seek help.  Diarrhea took a baby, pneumonia took another child, malaria took several youth, liver failure from Shaman treatment killed a young woman…

.

This is the work you support.  10,000+ sick people were treated in 2023 and it will be more in 2024.  And still, so many sudden, unexpected and tragic early deaths…

.

Every death in Cavango, almost without exception, is sudden, unexpected and permanently terminates a young life…  Sadly, we have become experts in caring for patients and families facing unexpected loss of life, and this experience has come at great cost, because every death hurts… We get to know each one and care about their pain and recovery..  we research, we call experts, we pray …  we embrace the family, we invest emotionally, we laugh and cry with them… 

.

The forgotten, unreported, neglected, hidden, rural people of this region grieve and struggle with tragedy or potential tragedy in exactly the same way as would you and me.  We embrace each and every one, in the sadness, anger, and confusion inevitably surrounding a sudden, young death; we embrace them in their mourning and tears and raw emotions of which we have become all too familiar. 

.

We are here because we are called by our King… to go… to clothe, feed, heal and care… to weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice… to go… to those in our family, to those in our neighborhood, to those in our region of the world, to those where the suffering is greatest…  to go in the middle of the night, to go when we are tired or when we are dealing with our own pain/loss… to go when no one else will go with us… to go when we are criticized for going… to go and explain, again, the cause(s) of illness and appropriate and inappropriate treatment(s)… to go and embrace, to go and laugh and cry, to go and seek practical help for them, to go and ask our Father how we might best serve/help them…  

.

They are people like you and me, every one, with cares and concerns, joys and struggles…

.

Jesus knew all of this before He admonished us to go.  He often worked into the night and “healed them all”.  He demonstrated that he knew the pain and grief of sudden loss to death, and He cared.  He cried.  He exhausted himself daily to help as many as possible, in any way possible, whenever possible, however possible.  Fatigue must have been a constant for Him, along with the natural, human desire to rest, to sleep, and to “self-care”.  But Jesus modeled something quite unique and remarkable.  Did he rest and pursue what was best for him while someone’s child/mother/brother was dying?  We cannot care for everyone, but we can care for a lot more hurting people than we do, if we would place less emphasis on “self-care”, like the One we follow. 

.

We have become enamored by the psychology of today, which promotes a “better you,” with the hedonistic philosophy, “We don’t focus on ourselves enough”.  This is exactly the opposite of what Jesus taught and modeled…  Jesus’ focus and priority was always on “another”. 

.

When will we learn the “law of diminishing returns”?  The more we seek to please ourselves, the more pleasure will be necessary to achieve the same sense of “fulfillment/contentment/satisfaction”? 

.

The fruit of our self-focus? Our world remains an incredibly painful mess for the vast majority.  So many suffer, everywhere, in so many ways… neglected and forgotten by those pursuing “better” for themselves.  In so many places hopelessness and purposelessness reign…  The pursuit of self-pleasure blinds us to the reality of the suffering all around us.  Few have “eyes to see”… but you do… Thank you!

.

We live/work with, in, around, and near young death daily in Cavango.  The loss involved in young death powerfully affects so many.  Every day.  In Cavango, we feel it, see it, hear it, smell it, taste it…  So many children, so many babies… We hurt and cry with the many who grieve…

.

We come alongside these (many) beautiful people during these defining moments of facing death.  Our work is serious and sober and it’s not fun.  So many pleasant outcomes result from our concern, study, extra effort, lost sleep…  but nothing comes easily, or without cost, when battling such a formidable enemy as death.

.

How does one live in circumstances such as these?  Frequent vacations, leisure and days off?  Rather, there must be an ever-vigilant, daily awareness of yet another call with the arrival of another person close to death, another call to either save another from death or help someone bear the loss of their loved one…

.

Out of care and concern, one becomes a passionate advocate for those bearing and suffering so much young death.  He/she writes and speaks (and sometimes yells) to those ignoring these realities.  He/she diligently seeks out those who might join him/her in the fight against young death.  He/she speaks/writes to churches, governments and others to try to “stimulate them to good works” and improving systems that might diminish the tragedy of so much preventable, young mortality.

.

In Lubango and across the world, we have seen an appropriate, honoring, healthy, and beautiful response, by so many, to the death of a beautiful young man.  The overwhelming support for his family will be a blessing to many and has encouraged me deeply.

.

And, perhaps… some of those same churches, governments, missions and individuals, who are responding so beautifully and energetically to the truly tragic situation involving one man and his family will… perhaps… now open their eyes to the same, daily, tragic pain and loss experienced by the “nobodies,” in Cavango, in their own backyard, by the thousands… and, perhaps… will now be further prompted to seek what our Father would have them do…

.

Matt 25: 31+