Death at NEGST

One of my friends from my academic advising group lost his one year old son a week and a half ago. It was so sad. It was really sudden, he got sick Sunday afternoon, they took him to the hospital and then he died at 12:30 am. I don't know what it was. It really shook up the community last week. There was a huge stream of people that came through his house to visit the morning after, and I also went and sat silently for about 30 minutes and then I left. For two nights last week we had meetings around a bonfire, having us gathered around in the dark, singing songs, hearing messages of encouragement, and praying. I haven’t experienced anything quite like that in America. It felt really genuine to me. One of our chapels last week was dedicated to him as well. The burial was on Saturday, at his home upcountry, and there was a big caravan from NEGST that went, 37 I heard. I was debating going the whole week, but since I was not feeling well on Friday and it would have involved traveling all day, I decided against it. Had I known I would have canceled preaching on Sunday, I might have reconsidered, but it was probably better for me to stay.

It is not common for a member of the NEGST community living on campus to die, but certainly death, especially of infants, is much more common here. There was a former student who lost her son one day after he was born just a few weeks ago. What do you say when that happens? I'm glad there were so many others to comfort and talk to them, and I didn't have to say anything. I think its usually better just to be there and not say much. I think that's what I would want if I were in that situation.