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Category: Personal

Hope Changes

A Jon Post

I sat on the couch this week with my wife. I sat and wept for the frustration of the shattered reality that there is no forthcoming solution to the place we find ourselves.

Last Month

Last Month

Last month Layne posted that Pedro had an MRI and we were waiting for the next step to be determined based on the results of that MRI.
The results came.
Placed up against a florescent light to show the contrast between bone, tissue, cerebrum, artery, and tumor, this thin film of plastic brought with it ugly words.
Tumor, extensive re-growth, malignant, invasive, terminal.
An apologetic neurosurgeon sat in front of me and explained her inability to even close the surgical wound left behind by his first surgery.
“…only thing left to do is help him manage pain and dress the wound.”
And she left me with the honor/dread of telling Pedro his prognosis… of cutting the spidersilk thread we all had held on to that maybe surgery could help… of telling him that his seizures and loss of muscle control were only the beginning… of telling him that there is a God who loves. A God who loves. A God who loves.
Now… 1 week later, he sits in a wheelchair in my back yard.
Unable to move his right arm or leg.

Laughter

Laughter

And I sat on my couch and wept. In this situation, because of his rapidly deteriorating health, we would have hoped to bring Pedro’s wife and children to him here at Casa Ahavá. But just three weeks ago Pedro’s son was born. His forth child, not even a month old, waits for his daddy to come home. A daddy who cannot hold him, cannot stand tall with him, cannot wrap him against his chest and tell him how proud he is. This 3 week old cannot make the journey to Pedro.
Pedro’s health means he cannot get on a bus or an airplane to get home. His family cannot get on one to come here.
Let’s get Pedro home.
Thursday morning at around 4 we will help Pedro into the car and I’ll drive him the (depending on road conditions) 12 hour trip to his home village. His home is in a bit of a remote area but we’ll make it.
So our hope has changed.
It’s changed from hoping for long months, even years, to hoping for enough days to get home. Just two more days. And it’s changed to hoping for more than just what this broken body can offer. Our hope has changed. Pedro’s hope has changed.
A God who loves. A God who loves. A God who loves.
Please pray for us as we drive to Muxúnguè on Thursday to get Pedro home.

The Route

The Route

Pray that our hope is not deferred but that Pedro’s longing to see his son is fulfilled.
Please pray with us for Pedro’s heart.

August 12, 2014
Casa Ahava, Medical, Rock Climbing, Travel
10 comments

Pausing for a Breath

A Jon Post

Casa Ahavá’s first patient has left.
Zakarias arrived for the first time in April of last year. He spent 6 months in Casa Ahavá and then returned to his home in Beira. As many of you have read here and here, he came back in January and spent another month in Casa Ahavá with his wife and daughter.
After meeting with his oncologist, we received a final, though not unexpected, response from the oncology ward.
His cancer is untreatable.
Terminal.
Fatal.
So he went home.
We spent many of those days while he was here in January and February talking about how he could prepare his life for its end. We visited multiple government offices to arrange for his veteran’s pension and social security payments to continue to support his young wife and children.
And he went home.
A wonderful doctor in the hospital’s pain management unit prescribed some medicine that has helped him tremendously. His pain levels are much decreased and his sleep time is much more peaceful.
So grows his cancer.
So creeps towards its glory, the spirit of Papa Zakarias.
Upon arriving home, he promptly sent someone to find out information on Filomena. As we mentioned here, we have been unable to contact her.
A neighbor had the news.
She died. Two weeks ago.

Goodbye Sister

Goodbye Sister

So arrived into glory the spirit of dear, sweet, Filomena.
When I heard the news all I could remember was the night I held her trembling body in my arms and willed oxygen into her fluid-filled lungs.
For this, Lord? For this? You saved her that night… for this?
Though I know the answers to the questions and the pain that flooded my heart, when I heard of Filomena’s death, those answers brought little comfort. They brought little relief from the weariness that threatened to overwhelm my spirit.
So entered glory, the spirit of Filomena.
Casa Ahavá; Home of a love that chose pain before ease. Home of a love that chooses flood waters before abandonment.
Now Casa Ahavá welcomes her next love. Now she offers her bed and arms to her next friend.
Dear Tia Anita was all packed and ready to come to Casa Ahavá on Friday, February 21st but paperwork and slow processes turned that into Tuesday afternoon, the 25th. Having spent the last 5 months away from her family and faced with the prospect of the next 2-3 with us, her stand-in family, we made the decision to send her to her home town for two weeks to see her daughters and grandchild before her next treatment. She will be back to stay with us next week on the 11th.
So now we pause. Now we try to breath. Now we remember the Sabbath that our Lord made holy, and we try to keep it holy.

I think God thought up camping/rock climbing for just such a time.

Thanks for praying for us, Zakarias, and for Filomena. It is known and it helps.

March 4, 2014
Casa Ahava, Rock Climbing
6 comments

A Thrill of Hope

a thrill of hope

Thanks Tara Craver for sharing

We are home. The trip was long and our girls are still not recovered – struggling with night and morning coughs and jet lag. I keep asking Jon to reassure me that it will get better… and it will, though it seems like it is dragging. I caught the bug before leaving the States and was determined to get home and get our house ready for Christmas. So before all of our bags were unpacked and laundry was done the tree, garland, and lights went up. This year I am enjoying a little Advent calendar with the girls, and while they may not understand it all, perhaps little bits and pieces will stick.

On Thanksgiving day we received a heavy email with a health update from our dear Eliza. She left for South Africa to start radiation the day we went on furlough to the States. The treatment has not gone well. Her throat has swollen and she is unable to eat food. She has stopped talking and can only use gestures to communicate. Her brother came by our home a couple of days ago to ask for help to get her home. We are so very blessed by our supporters in that the financial side of that is not a problem – Thank you! What we need from you is prayer. Pray that Eliza, who is currently on breathing tubes, will improve and stabilize enough to get on an airplane and make it back to Mozambique, her home country, where  she can be around family and those that love her.

Yesterday we were able to make our first visit back to Oncology! We wanted to arrive as a family and introduce ourselves to all the new patients. Our girls are such a blessing there. It was fun to watch our Karasi being toted around, chill as could be. Anaya is becoming more and more comfortable, and we are able to talk with her more about our “job” there. It is sweet when she suggests that we pray for people. We saw two patients that we knew and the rest were all new! Pray with us as we develop new relationships and ask the Lord to guide us in the selection of 4 new patients for Casa Ahavá.

This holiday season, surrounded and so very aware of this weary world, we feel the thrill of hope, and we rejoice! Christ our Savior has come.

December 9, 2013
Personal, Travel
5 comments

First Fruits

IMG_3540

Dinner Time

Papa Zakarias, the one at the head of the table, decided to put in a little garden area on the side of our house. He has a farm back home, so he is quite a natural at getting things to grow. He was able to buy some small starter plants and planted Couve a Mozambican green leafy plant much like spinach. They eat Couve multiple times a week, usually cut in thin strips or pieces and boiled with salt and onions, sometimes with potatoes and carrots. It is yummy!

Well, thanks to Papa Zakarias and his hard work, we were able to enjoy the first fruits celebrated with a family dinner! How awesome is that? It was joyous!

Also, this week you can keep Jon and our family in mind. Jon is gone for 3 nights to Durban, South Africa to take part in a training at a Hospice center there. He will return Wednesday evening. The original plan was for the two of us to go together and Karasi could stay with me, but her travel documents could not be ready in time. That means I am home with the 3 girls for 4 days! We will be fine, but I do suspect I will be extra tired. Pray for Jon to learn lots and make some good contacts and pray for patience and grace for this Mama.

We love you guys!

July 28, 2013
Casa Ahava, Personal
3 comments

Sunday Nights

A Layne Post

I wish you could spend a Sunday evening with us. I am just sure your hearts would be as full as ours after a short one hour with our patients. You see, a little over a month ago, our friends were inside eating dinner with us when we turned on a Baby Einstein video for our fussy little ones approaching their bedtime. Turns out all were fascinated and thoroughly enjoyed watching the animals from around the world on the big screen.

Jon then had the wonderful idea to watch an episode of the BBC series Planet Earth that his Dad so graciously gave to us (Thanks, Dan!) once a week. When we asked if they’d be interested, it was unanimously agreed. So Sunday nights have now turned into Planet Earth and popcorn nights! My girls are equally happy to be a part – Jovie toddling around eating everyone’s popcorn and Anaya pointing at whatever is on the screen and saying words and phrases that are well beyond her little 2.5 year old self, and now Karasi either sleeping on her pillow or kicking her legs in the middle of the floor.

From monkeys that get in water, which is unheard of to a Mozambican, to Pakistani men dancing in joy because of a snow leopard sighting (whom the patients would insist was under the influence), the patients are intrigued. Will the wild dog catch the impala? Can otters really scare off a crocodile? A fish with no eyes? Our living room is filled with shouts and laughter and always ends in a floor scattered with popcorn.

I wouldn’t trade it.

It is another one of those moments where we forget anyone is sick, where we find joy and make memories. I am so grateful for these small opportunities and for the Lord’s presence in fellowship.

July 14, 2013
Casa Ahava, Personal
4 comments
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