Healing

On Sunday, April 6, about noontime, Wayne was eating her lunch when she choked on her food. Her mother, Yvonne, who was nearby at Hilltop UM Church, rushed to the house to find Wayne gasping for air. She died soon after. She had not been ill, except for the increasing complications of her cerebral palsy.

A wave of emotion caught me unawares when I first heard this news from Kennedy Mukwindiza. I felt great sorrow for Wayne, who had experienced few joys of childhood, except the great love of her family and their care for her through 12 years. I felt sorrow for her family, who will miss her intensely. I felt the sorrow of helplessness for our unsuccessful efforts to make a difference for Wayne. My thoughts moved on to millions of other children lacking decent medical care and with little hope of a different life, all part of that great wave of feeling that swept over me. Yesterday, at Vibrant Covenant, I lit my usual Sunday candle for Wayne, held it for a while, placed it in the sand with the candles others had lit, then took it back and blew it out, returning it to stand unlighted among the others.

Yesterday's Psalm at St. Michael and All Angels was the 23rd. My thoughts were with Wayne as we sang the Psalm together, and my mind went to Isaiah 40, "He will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom." Surely Wayne, one of those lambs, now has the healing we sought for her in the bosom of the Good Shepherd.

Our friend, Lynn Norman, whose videos of Wayne are posted on this blog, expressed her response to the news of Wayne's death beautifully. She saw Wayne's pain as a reflection of the bigger picture of Zimbabwe in the grip of enormous suffering as desperate shortages of food, fuel, and other essentials increase and the election crisis wears on. Yet, as Wayne and her family had hope for a new life, so we have hope that the suffering of our Zimbabwe friends will lead soon to a better life for them.

What would be a fitting memorial for Wayne? I will be glad for your suggestions, but perhaps there is no greater memorial than our redoubled effort to make a difference in a broken world. True, as in our efforts to help Wayne in her brokenness, we will come up against blank walls and closed doors, yet we know that any sacrifice on behalf of the most vulnerable, like Wayne, is well worth whatever the cost.

Please keep the Nyanungo family--Wellington, Yvonne, Rufaro, Daniel--in your thoughts and prayers. Remember all children who suffer, yet like Wayne, smile through their pain. Remember the people of Zimbabwe. Hear the call to care and give.

Jim Anderson