A difficult weekend...

This weekend was exceptionally difficult. Last Thursday I received a phone call that a very dear friend and his wife had been killed in a small plane crash. This was hard to hear and more so hard to see in the newspaper the next morning.

Rafael and Claudia were the Directors for Brazos de Jesús - the Guatemalan branch of the International Arms of Jesus Ministry with offices in both the US and Canada and ministry locations in GUA, Africa, The Carribean to name a few - www.armsofjesus.org.

Rafael and I became very good friends as our respective areas of ministry had a great deal of cross-over. As he put it "at times we were each others shoulder to cry on." As in the GUA custom there was the viewing, followed by the funeral the next day.

I was blessed to be asked to officiate as part of the grave side services. With several hundred in attendance I thought it incredible that the Gringo was asked. It was very heavy to see their five children looking at both of their parents in boxes. This cemetary is in the GUA city. And is one of the most serene locations that I have seen here. The landscape is filled with statues of Jesus, praying hands, sheep and live peacocks.

Sunday afternoon an additional memorial was held at the school that Arms of Jesus operates in the community of Parramos. Thursday through Sunday both Nancy and I had very heavy hearts in saying goodbye. At the grave side I had focused on Philippians 4:6-9 as scripture of comfort taking away the memories of all that was good in our relationship. God is good.