The Body of Christ

It's 6:36 a.m. and all is quiet on the ranch, at least for the time being. I feel asleep in front of the TV around 9:00 p.m. and basically slept through. Sometime around 11:00 p.m., I put the extra supper food in the fridge, took out my contact lenses, and recall my wife going to sleep on the other sofa, where she sleeps now. I don't think any of our kids have been up since at least 11:00 p.m.. It's good that everyone had a good sleep.

Certainly I would never wish tragedy on anyone, including ourselves. However, one benefit of this whole thing is feeling the support of the local and global Body of Christ in a way that I never have before. This itself has been overwhelming and often brought tears to read and hear kind words of affection and consolation, as well as receive acts of kindness and service.

Yesterday my wife's mother arrived in Paris after nearly 36 hours of flying on 4 different flights from Rapid City to Denver to Chicago to London to Paris. She has some health challenges, so this kind of flight is not easy for her. But my wife's and children's eyes lit up to see Grandma Mary again.

Our friends Fadma, Tricia, and Liz have been especially helpful in a hands on way in encouraging my wife, playing with our kids, and doing little things that need to be done, like vacuuming, washing dishes, and making beds. These are godly and beautiful women whom we all love and whom I hope some godly single men discover and marry sometime.

Our compatriot Randy is bringing lasagna over for lunch. Papy Alain was with us Sunday and brought an apple tarte, which we finally got to eating yesterday. It's funny how food becomes secondary to my wife and me. However, our kids bring us back to reality, as they still need to eat (as do we).

We went back to the Diaconesses Hospital yesterday to discuss some of the practical details, like what to do with the body, as well as how to discuss this with our children. This hospital was begun as a work of a Protestant association. It still has Protestant nuns who live on sight. Every Sunday, they go around in the maternity ward and sing songs to the families.

While meeting with Sister Jacaba (the chaplain of the sisters) and Mme. Elizabeth (head of services at the maternity), I appreciated their kindness and gentleness. At the Diaconesses, spiritually accompanying those who want it is part of the overall services and health care. When Nicole was alone for several hours on Saturday after Baby Jessica was delivered and I had to get home, these women hugged her and helped give hope. I don't think that it would have been the same at a normal hospital in France. Sister Jacaba will be able to help my wife and I and our kids in the future as well as we deal with this tragedy.

The memorial "celebration" service is shaping up. Our creative friends Pierre Nicolas and Marie will be helping with the music. Our friend and colleague Steve will help with the overall leading of the service. We haven't formally announced the service, but a number of friends are already planning on coming as well.

My father arrives in a few hours and I'll get him at the airport.

Tomorrow our kids start back to school. My wife is dreading having to explain to parents of our kids what happened. Pray for strength, wisdom, and grace in handling this. I expect that in some of our friend's desires to respond, they might say some clumsy things that we could take wrong. Pray that we'll be able to invite the right ones to the service on Saturday.

I've appreciated the support of our organization throughout this. Scott (the U.S. director), John (our France regional director), and Jim (our U.S. advisor), as well as others, have been very supportive. Our Paris colleagues Steve, Todd & Jenny also have been helping let others know what has happened.

I think today we'll finally send a formal e-announcement out.