Category Archive for "Personal" | jon and layne heller

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

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

Jon

Casa Ahava, Rock Climbing

6 comments

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

Layne

Personal, Travel

5 comments

First Fruits

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

Layne

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

Layne

Casa Ahava, Personal

4 comments

Karasi (Full of Life and Wisdom) Nitara (Having Deep Roots) Heller (Brighter)

A Jon Post

For one breathless moment we wait for a cry and a gasp.

Mother and Karasi Nitara

For one breathless moment we trust that divine lungs are blowing into a helpless and tiny body.

For one breathless moment we wait.

And Karasi Nitara Heller sings… she sings her birthsong, melting into the unintelligible songs of angels, all covered in her mother’s blood and amniotic fluid… she sings.

Then quiet, a whimpering mother clinging to her daughter…

Then quiet, an IV drip hanging from the mother’s vein, an intrusive pest into this intimate greeting…

Then more songs, more joy, a mother’s laborsong mingled with her daughter’s birthsong.

More life, and all the wisdom of the mother poured into her daughter. All the deep roots planted over 9 months of bodily sacrifice bursting forth to the surface of pain mixed with trust all washed in sponges of alcohol based disinfectant and a joyous love.

Singing Together

And mother sits with Karasi Nitara and both sing softly in cries and hymns. Then the angels join in harmony with Karasi Nitara’s laughter and her mother’s weeping.

Then they fall silent to witness this holy moment of life bringing life, of blood poured out for the life of another, of tears wept in anticipation of the now.

Karasi Nitara come forth in Life and Wisdom. Plant your deep roots and shine brighter and brighter until noon day.