Ugandan Burial

Today Jess, Ryan, Kelli, and myself, along with ALL of our Ugandan staff members went to the burial of the son of a very good friend of ours. Mama Agnes has been in our church as long as it has been in existence, I think. She is in her early 50's, which is old for Uganda. And one of her sons just died of complications from AIDS. He's only about 30 years old. Agnes was inconsolable. Our Ugandan guys did most of the visiting and planning with her yesterday, and we helped pay for a lot of the food that was served. J.B. and Martin went and bought the coffin this morning, and J.B. drove Agnes and some of her family out to the village, while the rest of us took various family members plus friends and church members as well. And on top of that, three "Coaster" buses were hired to take friends and relatives to the burial. Customs here are very different than in America. The body was on display at Agnes's home, and when you come to do "visitation," when a woman steps into the yard, she throws her arms on top of her head and starts wailing. This unites you with the mother and/or family in grief. And no one is ever buried in town. You take the "dead body" back out to the village that your family comes from, some young men - friends or family - dig the grave and then either brick it in, or make a cement floor and walls, and then the ceremony is held in the front yard of the family. There is usually a quarrel over who will do the ceremony since the family members come from different faiths and churches. Today the mother, Agnes, had asked Calvary Chapel and Jess in particular to do the service. J.B. made sure that this happened. Jess spoke beautiful words of salvation, and several gave their lives to Christ today. Then we went up the road a ways to where the grave had been dug, and the coffin was lowered into the grave with ropes. Then people threw dirt into the grave, and an iron sheet and a steel mesh was put over the top. Then a thick layer of cement was put over that, and everyone went back home, trecking through someone's sweet potatoe field on the way.
There were several times today when my heart was really touched for Agnes and I grieved with her, but the moment that I will remember forever is when I had my turn to give my condolences in her house as she sat by the coffin, and when I walked in, she had the other women unwrap Eric's face in his coffin (they wrap the body in several bedsheets) and she touched his face and said, "Mama Bev, this is my son. This is my son." And then we cried and cried together.
Eric had prayed with Jess to receive Christ two months ago when he realized that he had little time left. We do believe it was a true decision for Christ, and this gave Agnes some comfort. Please pray for her - she is a widow and lost her husband a few years ago. When we arrived today, she found that because the family doesn't want her and her family buried there, all the cement had been broken off her husband's grave - a great insult and dishonor - and that was almost as hard on her as burying her son.