Sacrifice

Our friend Manoely called us one morning last month with some news. Our church has several outreach groups around our city (called “cell groups”). Twins had been born to a family in one of these cell groups. This was good news, but sadly, their mother died during the birth. This time of COVID-19 has been very hard on many in our city. This family knew they could not care for two newborns without help. They took them to a local Catholic center that receives orphaned children. However, the center couldn’t help them—they have already devoted all their space and resources to caring for COVID-19 patients. Bravely, the family took on the daunting task of caring for the children. We were in the middle of a food distribution at that time, and so our church decided to include this family in the distribution and send their portion ahead in order to help them as they began caring for the babies, as well as burying their daughter. The father, mother, and younger sister of the twins’ mother are the ones caring for them.

Praise the Lord, this family are already believers, and have been for some time. The twins’ grandfather, in fact, is a hazomanga. This means that he is the one in his family who has inherited the role of go-between for the living and their ancestors. His position in the family is to take the family’s needs—rain, harvest, healing, marriages, pregnancies—to the ancestors to seek help. But, this man is a Christian. For a long time now, he has not performed his role. Instead, he leads his family in worshipping the One True God through Jesus Christ as go-between, or Mediator (1 Tim 2:5). He no longer performs sacrifices of sheep, cows, and goats to the ancestors.

Rather, this grandfather, his wife, and his young daughter are making incredible daily sacrifices of themselves to care for these precious children. Please pray for them! Pray for the health of these two sweet babies—Lucius and Lucia—and for them to grow. Pray for comfort for this family as they’ve lost their daughter. Pray that they would get the daily rest and food they need. Pray for the perseverance of their faith, that they may continue to trust in Christ for provision and not in their ancestors. Pray for wisdom for Manoely, us, and our church as we continue to help them. 

But You Yourself have seen trouble and grief,

observing it in order to take the matter into Your hands.

The helpless entrusts himself to You;

You are a helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 10:14