On a warm April afternoon, our family hosted a large feast on the riverbank for many of our Gogodala friends. As the children played, the men mingled in groups, the ladies sat on woven mats caring for their babies and I talked with my friend Elizabeth.

A lady in her early twenties, Elizabeth is a close friend of our family. A few years ago, Karin found opportunities to study the Bible with her and show her some of its wonderful truths. Since then, Elizabeth had married and given birth to a baby boy.

Late last year, we received the shocking news that Elizabeth had been in a car crash along with her husband and baby, and only Elizabeth’s life was spared. As we talked, she told of a time after the accident when she heard people in the village joking that her husband had gone to hell, and her baby had gone to heaven. Elizabeth was unmoved by these tales. “Karin studied with me about the state of the dead,” she said, “and I know that my husband and baby aren’t in heaven or hell; they are resting peacefully in their graves, waiting for Jesus to come.”

Those Bible studies Karin shared with Elizabeth are really comforting her now, and she is holding tightly to the hope of Christ’s Second Coming. She still sheds tears when she passes by her baby’s little grave, but she clings to the hope of one day embracing him again when Jesus comes, and an angel places her perfect little boy in her waiting arms.—Johanna Erickson

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