Living Beyond Heartbreak

“That’s the spot where they killed him…Could you take a picture with your phone of the shrine on your side of the road?” I asked him.

He said he would and I slowed the van down…He took a good shot out of his passenger window, before texting me the photo.

I thanked him while my mind was racing back to the morning when I drove by and saw a family, armed with scrub brushes, busily cleaning the street in Sacaton. It seemed like a strange activity…mainly because I had only seen it once before in a movie, where a murder had been committed.

Later that day one of the Grandmas in the Community told me the truth. “David, that was where a teenage boy was killed by some people with machetes.”

What trauma! It was stunning to think of someone getting murdered in front of their own house, and leaving their family with nothing, but the job of cleaning their blood off of the road and covering the wet spots with a few candles and mementos.

But little did I know the devastation I would experience a couple months later, when the same young man who texted his photo, became so hopeless that he would shoot his own sister, and then turn and use the 45 on himself.

How do we recover from a heartbreak? Some tried to tell me how, but it didn’t really matter. I just continued to relive those final days…searching for a clue that I missed during all my interactions, pep-talks and efforts to be encouraging. It hadn’t changed anything in the end.

But God reminded me of the siblings…the 7 children who are still alive! They had chosen to stay alive and keep trying, and so also must I…

We are approaching the first Christmas since that heartbreak in June. Sometimes it’s not easy to feel motivated. But siblings, and many other children have not given up on Life.

Yes, there were two who didn’t make it, but there are many others who will receive our love and encouragement. They need the support that I cannot give without your help…so we can give it together!