First Honduran Funeral

Ana was one of the women in our Friday night Bible study as well as Ellen's Monday afternoon women's group. This was a woman Ellen really loved and they talked of doing cooking projects together but they ran out of time.

Ana is in the center - we were playing games outside.

When we first met Ana this past April, she was a wonderfully joyful and exuberant Christian and she was also a woman in her second round of chemo treatments fighting breast cancer. When she sang in the group she sang strongly and with joy to the Lord for His glory. Her testimony of God's goodness and blessings were strong and convicting.

Ana is in the center with cap - making cross necklaces

Even though she was 33 years old, she was a relatively young Christian of only two years walking with the Lord as her personal Savior. As far as I know, her husband and three children have not yet made professions of faith. Her children are 16, 12 and 7 years old.

Friday night Bible study group

It wasn't that long ago, maybe a couple months, that Ana announced at a Friday night meeting that the Lord had cured her and the doctor's had pronounced her cancer free. She was ecstatic and we all rejoiced greatly and praised God for what He had done.

Ellen's women's Bible study group
Ana is in the blue shirt

Just about three weeks ago Ana was feeling sick with a cough and soon started having trouble just walking around the community. They finally took her to the hospital. One test lead to another, they kept her over night, then another night, and then the doctors finally diagnosed her with terminal lung cancer.

My emotions spiked with the internal battle of how could this happen, yet God had allowed it to happen, but why, and why cure her for this turn around? For me, and I'm sure much more so for her, it was very hard, and yet you would not have known that from her disposition and trust in the Lord.

We took a chicken dinner over to her husband and the kids while she was still in the hospital. He was in such emotional pain he could hardly talk and the kids did not even come out of the little house.

Then we were told that since the doctors could do nothing more for her she was being released to return home... with no more care. Would she have hospice? No, there's no hospice here. Would she have in home care? No, there would be nothing. No hospital type bed, no potty chair, no nothing!

This was difficult to accept, having just seen my mom die from cancer and knowing everything she had... a new flat screen TV in the room, along with a reclining bed, and most importantly pain killers. In the front of my mind was 'How was Ana going to make it and how could her family deal with it?'

Funeral Procession

Ana was sent home from the hospital to die. Ellen and Norma were able to visit with her just a day before she passed. She was very weak and had lost a lot of weight. That night they said her vomit was all black. Amazingly, a doctor did go to her house with pain meds that miraculously she never needed. She was tired and short of breath, but not in unbearable pain.

Last truck in the procession was a big work truck!

Ana died early Monday morning, November 7^th. Friends came to Norma's house in the wee hours of the morning to ask for an adult diaper to put on the body because the bowels would void. The body was cleaned by friends and kept at the house.

The casket was carried in a police pickup

Cotton is put in the mouth and nostrils to prevent... stuff from coming out. They dressed her in her wedding dress and placed the veil on her head. The veil was a very lovely touch as well as practical as it kept insects off her face. Friends and family came to visit all of Monday, straight through the night, and into Tuesday morning. Tuesday was the funeral.

The casket was loaded, unloaded and carried by friends and family.

It was our honor, privilege and joy to be able to use our pick up as one of four available for family and friends to pack into. The lead car with the casket was a police pick up (a friend of the family). People were packed alongside of the casket in back of the police pick up. We were blessed that the final vehicle in our procession was a huge work commercial truck that they only wanted the men to ride in (probably because it wasn't too clean).

We went to a little mountain cemetery and there was a small chapel for holding a service. The man who introduced Ana to Christ shared first. I think at home we would have thought that was enough of a sermon, but he was followed by the leader of the small community worship group she was a part of and he spoke longer than the first man. Finally her father shared. Her father's words were amazing, that his daughter's best decision was accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, and that the only way to heaven for any of us is Christ alone!

Many songs were sung, there was only one guitar player, but the music and praise was beautiful, even if sometimes a little off key. They carried the casket to the grave and the friends and family lowered it in with ropes. Probably what struck me as being the most different from a US funeral, here the attendees actually dig out the grave and at the end shovel the dirt back into the grave.  Everyone stayed until the burial was completed.

Norma, our friend that we currently live with, commented afterward that she was amazed that there was no wailing but rather a spirit of celebration. We have experienced the custom of wailing at a funeral and it's quite disturbing. We actually didn't notice the lack of it during the funeral but we praise God for the peace and comfort He provided to these people as they mourn their loss and celebrated her being in glory!!

We're so thankful the Lord allowed us the opportunity to know and love Ana, and to share a little piece of her life here.  We look forward to the day we can see her in glory!