KONOMALA

Keti, Anita, and Totirip

As a church we’ve been through a lot in these last months. Some of you might remember all that happened with Ken earlier this year. During that long and sad season, a middle aged couple named Keti & Anita began to more faithfully engage with the church. Anita and her 20 year old son Totirip [to-tee-reep] had both responded pretty clearly to the gospel but had been inconsistent for a while before that. As a family, the three of them seemed to be doing really well and each of them were responding to truth in different ways. 
*a little side note, they are directly related to everyone else in the church too

About a month ago our family had gone to town for a multiple day stretch to get supplies. Late in the night, we got a phone call from one of our good friends. He and Totirip had been working to help a local passenger truck. They had been working hard and hadn’t gotten much rest for a couple days in a row. In typical Totirip style, he didn’t want to fall asleep in front of everyone on the truck, so he ignored everyone’s advice and decided to stand on the back bumper of the truck. As the truck sped up on a long stretch of pavement, the wind and noise lulled Totirip into a moment of sleep. 

A second later, someone yelled out that they had seen someone fall off the back of the truck. As the truck slowed down, our good friend jumped off and ran to find Totirip taking his last breaths. His body had been crushed by the fall and subsequent rolling on the pavement. 

When I (Seth) arrived at his funeral service the next day, the family had already buried him. All of us were in complete shock. 

grieving together 

On top of the deep trauma of losing their son so suddenly, Keti & Anita were dealing with an immense amount of pressure and stress from extended family and the surrounding community. There were some very complicated layers to the whole situation. Suffice to say, any one of a dozen factors had the potential to create massive relational rifts and division among us in the church. 

God graciously led us all through the challenges that seemed to just keep coming one after the other. As a church we worked hard to be present and care for Keti & Anita. Through the normal ups and downs of grief, they maintained a humble and heavenly perspective. It’s impossible to explain the minutia, but from a worldly and cultural perspective, they had every right to be enraged and bitter. Everyone in the community expected them to exercise those rights and ensure that “justice” would be served. 

In fact, the peace and contentment that Keti & Anita were showing was so anti-cultural that people were making noise about it. Some were stirring up trouble and becoming frustrated that “justice” wasn’t being demanded. 

Others came and asked questions. 

“Enough is enough”

In particular, one of Anita’s friends made multiple attempts to understand what she was seeing happen in Totirip’s parents. The first time she was urging Anita to get angry and asked how it could be that she was so peaceful in the midst of such suffering. As Anita recounts the story, she just simply responded, “It’s only because of Jesus”. Her religious friend wasn’t sure how to respond, so Anita explained to her how she & Keti are resting all of their hope, grief, and trust in Jesus and His promises. She was just thanking God that Totirip had recognized the truth and is now experiencing eternal life. Now Jesus was helping her in real time to experience His very life. 

The second time that same friend came with a little extra snarky energy. “I see you. You and your little church are just full of peace, peace, peace. Enough is enough. Forget them and do what needs to be done. Let everyone know how angry you are and do right by your son.” That time Anita gave her perfected disinterested-face and just said, “I ain’t doin’ it” … loosely translated. 

Jesus is better

In the end, the enemy’s focused attempts to paralyze the church were a brilliant failure. Keti & Anita are stronger than ever in their weakness. The church is closer together and more confident than ever in Jesus and the good life available in Him. 

It’s certainly not because of anyone’s great strength or ability … but because of Jesus. In the midst of pain and tragedy, He is better. There are a million ways that we can independently walk through life, but there is only one way to find what we’re truly searching for. We have to let the self-stuff die and humbly connect ourselves to Jesus. He’s the answer for eternity … and for today. 

Keep Praying 

Pray that we would continue humbling ourselves as the Spirit reveals, teaches, and leads us evermore to Jesus. 

Pray that we keep growing together as a church. The hard stuff isn’t over yet. Not until all is made right and we’re with Jesus forever.  

Pray that our family would remain healthy and that we could finish well with the church as we all count down the last few weeks together. 

Pray for Keti & Anita as they are still grieving the loss of Totirip. Pray that the church would continue loving them well.