Sad news about Marta 

At the beginning of August, we heard the sad news that a girl, Marta, who attended our after-school lessons (and has been involved in our programs since she was a baby and received help from our on-site nutrition program) had died.

In the weeks before this, my colleague had helped the family with transport to the hospital where Marta, 11 years old, was admitted for a couple of nights and our teacher, Joana, had visited her at hospital and at home multiple times. When Marta was discharged from hospital, I visited her at home and this picture shows a relative of hers leading us to her house. It seemed that she had malaria which wasn’t being effectively treated and sadly Marta passed away. I was hugely saddened by the news of this, not being able to make sense of it all. But I write all this because I want to communicate the hope that I heard amongst this devastating news.

After her death, Anna and I visited her family where they told us that 3 days before Marta died, she started singing and praying to God throughout the night. Her family told us that Marta did this each night, even was preaching at times, in the lead up to her death. The night before she died, Marta kept saying these words to her family ‘The Spirit is truth, the Spirit is truth!’ and at one moment, Marta told her parents that there were two angels either side of them all. Her mum stepped outside to see the angels but saw nothing. However, Marta was convinced and could see them clearly. Anna reminded the family (and myself) that in dealing with this situation, we have the sadness to hold with one hand but let us not forget the hope we are holding in the other hand. The hope of Jesus Christ.