Easter with A .and H.

Sunday, after the joy of celebrating Christ's resurrection through worship and our traditional congregational Easter dinner, several of us went over to visit A. and H.

As I have written earlier, A is recovering from her gallbladder surgery and the news that her abdomen is inflamed, and filled with liquid. She is awaiting results of a biopsy, but her enzyme count seems to indicate a return of cancer. She has been extremely depressed, so I thought it might be good for some of us to stop by, to bring her a lily and our love.

J, ML and CS came, and CS's dear little son, E., who is only a month or so older than A's son, M. They had gone trick or treating together last Halloween. But M. has been sensing the tension and so has been reticent to engage with people. He did, however, enjoy the Easter basket we brought, as well as the chunky preschooler's Bible that CS gave him.

We gathered around A. to sing and pray. Mamma B and Mamma D. remained in their chairs, but H. joined right in, "adding his energy." That really took a lot of courage on his part, to enter into a circle of Christians, in front of his mother, a devout Muslim married to a sayed! A. was distant, indifferent. She gave us perfunctory thanks and retreated back into her pain.

The other VCC folks left, but Steve and I remained a bit longer, seated on either side of the sofa, with A. between us. While her family conversed together in Farsi, A. confessed to us in a flat voice that she felt she had lost her faith. I noticed that she was no longer wearing the gold cross H. had given her a year ago, upon her baptism. Her eyes were fixed and empty.

Now A. takes the Bible very seriously (probably because as a Muslim she was trained to take the Koran very seriously.) So Steve responded to her disclosure by pointing out, "The Bible says that even if we are faithless, God cannot be." We then observed how Jesus felt deserted on the cross; how that even HE felt like God wasn't with him at that time of his greatest suffering. So, if A. was feeling afraid and abandoned, that is exactly what Jesus experienced, as well. But the good news is that Jesus also experienced resurrection, so we can experience it, too.

A. sat motionless, for a long time silently weighing our words. Then she turned to Steve with great resolution and whispered: "Pastor I want to testify. When I die I want to be buried here, in U.S. like a Christian. I want the carpet [a carpet her mom brought from Iran, with the image of Christ and the cross woven in it] laid over me. I not want my mother to wear black longer than seven days [Persian custom dictates mourning for two years.] I want my brother to go ahead and get married after 40 days."

"Lord I believe: help my unbelief. "

Somehow, the Spirit had worked through this conversation to bring A. to the point of actually speaking about her death. This was a milestone, as she has been under pressure to act her role according to the Iranian cultural script which prohibits telling anyone they are mortally ill. Moreover, H. has constantly been pushing her to "think positive thoughts," in other words, not to acknowledge death as a real possibility. This explains why they have both vehemently rejected any talk about Hospice.

"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."

Steve told A. about his mom's funeral and how it was held at church, with singing and witness to her resurrection in Christ. A. was enthusiastic about that idea. So we began a brief conversation about the things each of us would like to have at our funerals... the music, the scripture, and other little details. I think that calmed her, to see that Christians can talk about death and not be afraid, because our hope is in Christ. What better time than Easter to remember that no grave can contain Him or those who trust Him!

"Now that that is done," I said when I sensed she had finished speaking, "let's think about the life we have been given right now." A. then opened a card CS had left, and another one that we had invited everyone who was at the church Easter dinner to sign. She brightened, and smiled. M. ran up to H's mother waving his new Bible and calling for her to read it to him. Who knows how the Lord will work through all this?

S.A., H's father, then shuffled into the room. I was greatly encouraged to see him even able to walk, and talk, after his stroke. Mercifully, he and Mamma B. had been able to fly back to Eugene from Utah on a commercial airline direct flight. Poor H.! He is being squeezed on all sides, what with A's cancer, his father's stroke, and his own health and financial problems. Who knows how the Lord is working through all this?

Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."

Even on Easter Sunday.