{"id":2036,"date":"2013-09-30T06:56:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T13:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/?p=2036"},"modified":"2013-09-30T11:30:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T18:30:24","slug":"guest-blog-from-dan-heller-names-that-have-faces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/guest-blog-from-dan-heller-names-that-have-faces\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog from Dan Heller: Names That Have Faces"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jon<\/span> Post<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been a busy couple weeks. My parents arrived in Maputo on September 15th, ready to spend some time with our family and see our ministry. They spent our final 1 and a half weeks with us in Maputo before our two month furlough. They got to see us running around, trying to tie up all loose ends, getting our home,\u00a0Casa Ahav\u00e1, ready for two months without us. Patients to and from the hospital, to and from administration records buildings, and seemingly endless errands all led up to leaving our home on Tuesday the 17th and arriving, 40 hours later, in Layne’s parents home. It was exhausting.<\/em><\/p>\n

So my dad reflected on his trip with my mom and he\/they wrote this guest blog this week. They\/we hope you enjoy.<\/em><\/p>\n

A Dan Post<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Names That Have Faces<\/b><\/p>\n

Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone and thought, “finally a face with a name”. \u00a0Maybe a relative or a friend of a friend or just someone you have heard about. Vicki and I, after visiting Jon and Layne, met their first patients. Papa Zakarias, Eliza, Filomena, and Tom\u00e1s are not just names anymore but faces; real people that were not just names but became “friends”.<\/p>\n

We would like to offer a picture through our camera lens of who they are, so you might know their faces:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Papa<\/a>

Papa Zakarias<\/p><\/div>\n

(Papa Zakarias)<\/span><\/b> A 53-year-old diminutive man sits in comfortable solitude in a plastic chair.\u00a0 The sun\u2019s intense rays cannot<\/p>\n

reach him here in the shade of Casa Ahav\u00e1, where Papa Zakarias lives with his fellow patients.\u00a0 We often see him in this pose, playing his made-up chords on Jon\u2019s guitar, of which Zakarias has become the unofficial keeper.\u00a0 We want very much to come close enough to hear as he softly sings the words he has written to his wife and young children, the loved ones he has not seen these many months of cancer treatments; but we dare not disturb his privacy, and besides \u2026 the language barrier would prevent our understanding of the words.\u00a0 But there are other glimpses into his tender father-heart:\u00a0 the way he looks after the other Casa Ahav\u00e1 patients; his smiling eyes blessing Jon\u2019s and Layne\u2019s little ones; the longing in his voice \u2013 \u201cAhhh, \u2026.. Jovie \u2026\u201d \u2013 embracing the name of Jon\u2019s one-year-old daughter as he cradles the top of her head in a good-bye gesture, knowing it is possibly the last time he will see these children as well.\u00a0\u00a0 Papa Zakarias is easy to love.\u00a0 And we do \u2013 hoping, praying for the good news that he has been deemed a candidate for potentially life-saving surgery to remove the hateful tumor that has banished him to a place so far from home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Auntie<\/a>

Auntie Eliza<\/p><\/div>\n

(Eliza)<\/span><\/b> We love her Mozambican style:\u00a0 the artfully arranged head turban covering her chemo-bald head, the beautiful wrap-around capulana skirt, the fringed shawl.\u00a0 Eliza\u2019s communication and facial expressions vary from day to day, depending on the level of pain or discomfort she is experiencing.\u00a0 It is a relief to see that she freely trusts Layne with her needs and her pain.\u00a0 We have been in Jon\u2019s and Layne\u2019s home for several days before we see an easy smile on her countenance.\u00a0 We are happy that she, a grandmother herself, has been here at Casa Ahav\u00e1 for all these months, hugging and cheering our precious grandchildren in our stead.\u00a0 Who, we wonder, is loving on Eliza\u2019s grandchildren for her?\u00a0\u00a0 Occasionally, and comically, we try to communicate with words, hoping that our body language will come through for us; it often doesn\u2019t and we find ourselves looking to Jon or Layne for interpretation.\u00a0 It is not until the day before Jon and Layne will leave for their 2-month-long furlough, that we see the full expression of Eliza\u2019s love and gratitude toward them.\u00a0 We do not understand her words, but her tears say it all.\u00a0 Again, we pray and hope for this one:\u00a0 God have mercy; help Eliza learn to know You in \u201cthe power of an endless life\u201d (Heb. 7:16).<\/p>\n

\"Filomena<\/a>

Filomena and Vicki<\/p><\/div>\n

(Filomena)<\/b> Quiet. \u00a0Fragile.\u00a0 Recently bereaved of her 16-year-old son.\u00a0 These words pass through our minds as we think of the short time we knew Filomena before she left 10 days ago to return to her village in the north.\u00a0 Her fellow patients firmly believe that being at Casa Ahav\u00e1 saved her life \u2013 at least for a little while longer.\u00a0 On the day of her home-going, she is happy, excited to be returning to her two young children.\u00a0 In spite of her shyness, she seeks Vicki out for a hug and poses for a picture with her.\u00a0 Somehow, the photo reminds us that, just as He sees the sparrow when it falls, God sees her.\u00a0 That He knows her name and her story.\u00a0 That even though we will never see her again, she leaves her mark.\u00a0 For reasons beyond our understanding, God chose Filomena to live at Casa Ahav\u00e1 for a few months, to love and be loved there.\u00a0 And it was good.<\/p>\n

\"Tomas\"<\/a>

Tomas<\/p><\/div>\n

(Tom\u00e1s)<\/b> One would never guess from looking at Tom\u00e1s that he is sick.\u00a0 Strong and handsome with an easy smile, he says little, but he knows.\u00a0 For one of our dinners with the patients, he proudly prepares, in Casa Ahav\u00e1\u2019s little kitchen, a delicious Mozambican dish of cooked greens.\u00a0 He enjoys an occasional game of Jenga or checkers with me, Jon, and Papa Zakarias.\u00a0 We wonder what he is thinking on Tuesday morning, when he and Eliza board a bus for a two-month sojourn in South Africa for radiation treatment.\u00a0 Will he see his Casa Ahav\u00e1 friends again?<\/p>\n

Casa Ahav\u00e1\u00a0is Real – A House of Deep Love because of your generosity and prayers.<\/p>\n

A place that provides comfort to the sick and dying; a place that forgets cancer; a place that is filled with music; a place where games are played; a place where the women hold little Karasi and remember their own children or grandchildren; a place where life abounds even with the protector and guardian of the house – Gasher the dog! A place of sharing meals together, trying to understand different languages (Vicki and I); a place of realizing that our hope in God is the anchor of our soul and the only answer to life’s challenges; a place of gratitude, listening to the patients express with tears how thankful they are for Jon and Layne and all they do, one in particular saying she would have died earlier if it had not been for them. This is what our prayers and generous giving are supporting.<\/p>\n

We walked away knowing that Life is being discovered in the Face of Death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Jon Post It’s been a busy couple weeks. My parents arrived in Maputo on September 15th, ready to spend some time with our family and see our ministry. They spent our final 1 and a half weeks with us in Maputo before our two month furlough. They got to see us running around, trying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2036"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2043,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2036\/revisions\/2043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonandlayne.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}