Well said.

David, I think is the first time I have commented on your site. I have been reading since your trip to Uganda. You are one of the bloggers I really connected with. Your posts challenge me to think outside myself and my world. I need that in my life right now. Thank you for remembering, thank you for not letting us forget either. All I can do right now is pray, I know that enough and all God is asking of me right now.

The Dickens of this world help us remember what’s really important. Since we spent a year in Uganda we continue to stay in touch with many of those friends. In almost every communication we receive the news of yet another death. Melanoma, malaria, measles, meningitis…to say nothing of AIDS. In news reports they may simply numbers, statistics, but each one was a special person that left an imprint on who knows how many lives. Including ours.
What would be sad is if you weren’t affected by the news. Thank God for tender hearts. Will be praying as you grieve, but rejoicing that we do not “grieve as men who have no hope.”
Amen.

Of such is the kingdom of heaven. I’m sorry to hear for those who loved him on Earth.

There are millions like Dickens–millions. And each death, each terrible illiness, lessens all and each of us by much more than the one. Because we have the means to help in a huge way, and we do not. By “we,” I mean ALL of us, in this case meaning the wealtheir countries of this world. Recession notwithstanding, the US belongs among them.
The grieving is personal. Oh, yes. Especially if you’ve done what you–an individual–has done what you can. And so you have. You knew him. Your love for him is the one kind of thing in this screwed-up world of ours that makes me think it’s possible there is a god. His pointless suffering and death make me know there is not.
I wish there were some way to sustain belief, faith, hope. But sorry to say I’ve not managed to find a way.
You’re an admirable human being. Would that there were more of you.
Sympathy, understanding, and a shared grief go out to you.

I was so moved by the story. Are there any organizations that are doing work there that we can support with our contributions?

David – I am sorry for your grief. I believe that Dickens is with God and we will see him someday – know who he is and get to hear his story first hand. Saying that doesn’t diminish the urgency for caring for children in this world – not making wait until the next to be fed, comforted and loved. I trust the Lord is leading you, David, to a wonderful ministry in Uganda or wherever your purpose might be. We are to feed His lambs, feed His sheep – clear enough instructions.

David, one of the most important things you can do is to continue to write. You have an extensive reach and a receptive audience. Your words are helping to make a difference in many lives. Thank you.

Your gift is your writing. Time for another book. Do your research and add in your personal experiences. Meanwhile, write about what happens in your blog. People need to know.
Steve

I’m so sorry.

I am so sorry. My prayers go up for him and all of you.
And YES on the book idea. You have a true gift David…it would be powerful.

Thank you for the reminder. Keep on keeping on.

Oh, David. I’m so sorry.
I have a bracelet I wear on my left wrist–remember Deliverance Church, on that first day? Remember how the staff taught the children to make beaded things? As we were climbing on the van, one of the workers handed me the bracelet. I put it on my arm before we left Africa, and I have yet to take it off–it’s a visible link to something that otherwise seems so far away (were we really there? did we really see that?) Surrounded by all this affluence, I need all the reminders I can get…
All that to say, I understand.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Hebrews 11 and 12
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were strangers and aliens on this earth… instead, they were looking for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them…
Some faced jeers and flogging, while others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us, the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.
Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

David, Your tribute to Dickens honors him and the God you serve. Don’t you seriously get excited about seeing Dickens again, whole and healed? I love thinking about Heaven and how there will be no more pain, hunger, longing, lacking, of anything, ever for all eternity??? That makes this loss bearable, don’t you think? Not forgetable, but bearable. For we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. Losing someone to Jesus…right into His loving arms…home, truly home for the first time…that is just beautiful. I love your suitcase, too. What a great reminder of all that God allowed you to experience. I am so glad that He is in control and allows us to join Him. Don’t lose the passion…and God Bless you as you grieve for your precious friend. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

There is a reason that every single one of us has their own individual genetic code, a “number” if you will, that is ours and ours alone. Dickens is as important as any other person in history. Proof David, that you will definately see Dickens again is the fact that unique and similar are words that also qualify our lives. But, David, it will not be soon, nor will it be later when you will be seeing Dickens, it will always be now. David, I hope you will live to be very old in years, because, when you pass on from out of this life to life everlasting, there won’t be a “moment” that has passed from “now” until then. The pain of death, the sorrow and regret and fear and loathing of it, will never again cross our minds once it no longer exists. A longing for God and the new heavens and new earth are also part of our DNA. In Christ, we have all of the facts of science and the assurance of faith joined as one to show both our shattered and hurting souls and joyous and happy hearts where they find complete fulfillment.
I will kiss my children with Dickens as the reason the first chance I get. Tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
Thank you Dickens.
Thank you David.

David…a part of waking up is feeling. You get it David. God is using you. Press on my brother. Love, marcia

>>>
There is a reason that every single one of us has their own individual genetic code, a “number” if you will, that is ours and ours alone.
Posted by: Donny | April 6, 2008 10:18 PM
>>>
Identical twins have identical DNA.

>>>
Identical twins have identical DNA.
Posted by: John E. | April 7, 2008 12:34 PM
>>>
Whoops, my bad, latest research shows they don’t…

Thanks for this beautiful piece, David. One caution, that comes, for what it’s worth, from ten years of watching African children die: you can’t get ready for the rest of the journey without unpacking the suitcase.

>Identical twins have identical DNA.
Au contraire, my identical twin has a mole behind an ear that I don’t have.

This from an article dated 2001. More recent articles say essentially the same thing:
“Although identical twins have the same genotype, or DNA, they have different phenotypes, meaning that the same DNA is expressed in different ways.
Traits determined by phenotype, such as fingerprints and physical appearance, height, weight, moles and freckles, etc., are the result of “the interaction of the individual’s genes and the developmental environment in the uterus. Thus, a DNA test can’t determine the difference between identical twins, while a simple fingerprint can.”

The apparent triumph of evil.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
I believe that is what canucklehead refers to above. I remain more optimistic. Good men and women are doing something. Now, if we could get the slimy and self-serving politicians to do something….

For whatever reason, we “all” are the same and yet numbered differently. Dickens is a human being and so am I and so are you. To God though, Dickens IS Dickens and no one else. Many people have died over the last couple of weeks. Many did not move an author to write about them on a blog as widely read as Beliefnet, but you can be sure they moved someone. BUT, that does not make anyone more special than anyone else, yet, they are special. If sciecne were used a bit more politely, then we would see how God-ordained and how God-appropriate it really is. Just like our souls. But alas, humans are involved (dot, dot, dot,).

David, its an aggressive acute myeloid leukaemia that led to the death of one of us, Dickens! He real showed some very good response to the therapy he was instituted, with all parameters on bone marrow aspirate, bone biopsy and peripheral film getting normal with no blast cells at all!
The turn around was sudden as everyone enjoyed the apparently very good induction phase of the chemotherapy. This turn of event sat in a vehicle without a reverse gear and all that followed during the consolidation phase was hepatorenal syndrome which ended up with Dickens death at the Acute care Unit of Mulago hospital where he was sent for oxygen therapy has his respiration had become more difficult than ever before.
Everything eventually became incompatible with life on earth and surely Dickens departed for another life, for which we are all destined! May his soul rest in eternal peace!
As we remember him, we should ask God to let us be more for others than for ourselves; and alleviate more a suffering than we cause; and have big a heart than we doubt. For if doubts become more a way of life, truth shall give way and more lives , even those that could be salvaged, will perish; Not only in Uganda, at Uganda Cancer Institute but all over the globe.
Mwaka works as physician at Uganda Cancer Institute where Dickens was being treated. Dickens got the best of treatments and well above ordinary standards because his friend and mother Rox was always able to cater for all the health needs that he required, ranging from investigations, treatments and leisure, which indeed is very much required by patients with chronic, debilitating illnesses.
This serves as facts about the late Dickens to friends who care and mourn Dickens. Its not undue publication of health care information on him.
A.D Mwaka.

“I believe that is what canucklehead refers to above. I remain more optimistic. Good men and women are doing something. Now, if we could get the slimy and self-serving politicians to do something….”
How easy it is to blame politicians, authorities, and “society” as a whole while WE sit by and do not do nearly enough as we should.

If we did what we should do and got rid of the slimy self-serving politicians, how would the remaining Christian Republicans and the one or two pro-life Democrats left over from the process, run all of government? It’s not fitting here to even bring up the need to combat the social ills of leftist influence on society. It is time for us to turn our backs on liberalism and start reimplementing morality as an answer to many, many problems harming our world.