Ceciliah at her identification appointment at CURE Kenya

A few weeks ago, a little girl named Ceciliah Nyanusi missed her followup appointment at CURE Kenya. Ceciliah received a surgery to repair her clubfoot condition at our hospital this past September, and her treatment was supported by a group of donors through CUREkids.

Families miss their followup appointments for all sorts of legitimate reasons, and part of our communication process with CUREkids is to followup with those families and determine if we can expect them at their next appointment. So we followed up with Ceciliah’s family.

Then last week, we received some sad news. Two weeks prior, Ceciliah had passed away in her home village from cerebral malaria.

While we know Ceciliah’s death was not related to the care she received at our hospital in Kenya (we saw Ceciliah in a followup clinic in November and her clubfoot condition was healing nicely), for those of us at CURE, Ceciliah was a sad and inevitable first: the first child reported on through CUREkids to pass away.

The Real World

Parents in developing countries live in a constant awareness of the thin line between death and life; and Ceciliah’s parents, like many in rural parts of Kenya (and most of the places CURE serves), experience the consequences of disease far more often than I can comprehend (as a parent to an 8-month-old little girl, I have a hard time understanding what it would be like to lose my daughter to something like meningitis). For a family with very little materially, the loss of a child is devastating emotionally, spiritually, and even financially.

So now we know that a family in Kenya is grieving the loss of their daughter, and we here at CURE are left determining how to lovingly, respectfully, and authentically share this news with the community of people who have been praying for and supporting Ceciliah since her parents came to CURE for help this past summer.

Doing what we say

Since we started CUREkids a little more than a year ago, we’ve been committed to authentic communication; CUREkids is not a prepackaged, cookie-cutter experience. We have a mission, we’re committed to quality, and we pray for positive outcomes; but this is real medicine with real consequences and that comes with the real messiness of real life. That commitment to “real-ness” became even more intense with the sad news of Ceciliah’s death, and we were left answering the question, “How should we – as the community of CURE – respond?”

To seek answers, we turned our attention to God’s word to see how another community of faith was called to respond to the messiness of real life.

Being the Body

In Romans chapter 12, Paul addresses the persecuted church in Rome, admonishing them to live a life of true love for one another, love that flows out of their relationship with and devotion to God. Paul calls this their “true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). He goes on to explain what sincere love looks like when he offers these words that we often hear at funerals:

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. – Romans 12:15

As a part of CURE, we have the incredible opportunity to see – through the stories we follow in CUREkids – the life-changing impact in a family when a child is healed. We can rejoice with those who rejoice, and through the thoughts and prayers expressed in the get well messages that many of you have sent to our patients and the updates you’ve received during and after surgery, we’ve done just that. Over this last year we’ve seen the journey to healing begin for hundreds of children and the Gospel has been preached to the poor; everyday, there is much to rejoice over.

Now, we have the privilege and responsibility to mourn with those who mourn.

Sending our Condolences

If someone who lived next door to you lost their daughter due to illness, what would you do? If you’re like me, you’d probably send your condolences and let them know your family is praying for them. Without diminishing their sorrow, you’d offer them your ear; and if they allowed you, you’d sit with them, pray with them, and pray for them. Ideally, you’d be with them, just like God is with us in our times of sorrow.

And that’s exactly what we’ve invited Ceciliah’s community to do. Distance and circumstance separate us, but we want to express our empathy to one grieving family from dozens of others… and hopefully show what it means to be the Church.

So this week, we’ve asked Ceciliah’s community of supporters to email their thoughts and prayers to our CUREkids team in Kenya, and our CUREkids team has committed to getting those messages to Ceciliah’s parents. Together, we’re offering our condolences to people we will never meet but with whom we’ve shared a very real experience.

Technology can’t replicate human touch, but we’re honored to be the conduits for your respectful condolences to Ceciliah’s family. Even over the web, I know God’s grace and comfort will be present.

Thank you for being a part of CURE.