Endurance

Endurance is the name of a movie we watched last night about the Ethiopian Olympic Gold Medalist in the 10,000 meter run in 1996.  By sheer determination he ran back and forth to school, to work, to fetch water, to train, and never gave up on his dream, in spite of the death of his mother, the misunderstanding of his father, and the harshness of his environment.

Well, this week is feeling like the 25th lap.  But I’m not running like Haile.  My heart still grieves over the chasm between staff and students at CSB, and though there is a plan for bringing students back (an answer to prayer) there are ongoing concerns which trouble us.  Pray for faith that it will end in reconciliation in a way that brings God glory.  Rain is pouring down now as it has all day which is throwing our weekend hike-with-the-interns plan into question.  I’ve cried about ten times in the last 24 hours which is probably a sign that I need a break, but how to get one in this rain?  Last night at almost midnight our dear neighbor called for us, the family said he was dying, and he probably would have, his heart failure had taken a big turn for the worse.  But Scott was able to administer more medicines and today he’s a little better, though we all know he can’t last long.  The whole scenario this morning of sitting with him reminded me so much of my Dad, the grief came in quick strong waves.  Rain soaked me on the way to work and then kept anyone from coming to the staff Bible study I had prepared.  When I finally gave up and saw patients I found many very ill, including a baby who I thought might have meningitis.  As I was doing the lumbar puncture she stopped breathing, and in spite of some resuscitation efforts she died in my hands.  So all in all it has been a tough 24 hours.  Scott left this morning to take Luke and several other students for a math contest they qualified for in Mbarara.  So being here alone doesn’t help either . . . .

Endurance, looking towards the gold, and feeling the gasping struggle.