R.I.P. Adebo Stephen
I haven’t attended many funerals in my life and i have never attended an traditional African funeral; until yesterday.
My wife’s uncle passed away due to a combination of heavy drinking over time and hepatitis B. We visited him in his home two weeks before he passed, and then once more in the hospital a week before he passed. He wasn’t responsive the second time, but at our first visit, while in great pain, he was able to speak and move around.
In the shade of a big mango three i asked about his life; what he used to do before he got sick. He used to work with repairing motorcycles and clearly had a talent doing this, because everybody knew him as the fixer. Everyone in the area that had a problem with their motorcycle, came to his little repair shop by the roadside. He gazed into the past as i asked him if he missed it, before he nodded slowly. When i asked him if it was because of the drinking he stopped, the shame in his eyes said yes; but he pulled up his pants showing his leg and explained that he had fallen and broken his leg three different times, while test driving motorcycles he repaired; witch made him stop wanting to drive motorcycles and therefor also stop repairing them.
In other words he lost the purpose he had found in this world and exchanged the wrench with a bottle. Then he moved out from the village, away from his wife and kids; into a small dark room in the center of the nearby town. At this point he began to drink in quantities every day; until his body finally said enough.
Whatever purpose we create in this world it is fleeting; and without purpose life loses its direction, it becomes meaningless and we become hopeless. And where there is no hope, there is only despair. How steadfast is your purpose, do you even have one or do you just move aimlessly through the days?
After listening to his story i told him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how the emptiness he is feeling deep in his heart - that he has been trying to numb with alcohol - is a longing for God as it is written in Ecclesiastes 3:11 (AMP); He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.
Before we prayed for him i told him that if he reaches out for Jesus Christ and ask for forgiveness, with all his heart, then Christ will answer. We prayed and then we left. I don’t know if he reached out before it was too late, we can only hope that he did.
As we attended the funeral we came at the given time, but as a rule here in Uganda (or maybe Africa), the actual time for when something start is about 2-3 hours later; and this was no exception.
While we waited i went to greet the women working in the kitchen and the men who had set up the tents and chairs. While almost everyone is very friendly and eager to greet, both my wife and her mother had told me earlier when we visited the village to be careful, and to not eat anything someone offers; because of the risk of being poisoned by a jealous family member or neighbour.
As more and more people started to arrive i got faith to pray for someone, and before i got to act on my faith an old woman came with pain in her legs, we prayed and my wife translated. The old woman thanked us with a bright smile and walked back to her seat. We got time to pray for a couple more before the service started. And shortly after the service ended and the coffin was lowered we decided to leave.
Before we left, the village elder wanted to thank us for attending and contributing to the funeral of his son; from his heart and from the little he owned he gifted us a rooster and a chicken. And then he prayed for us and his son...
Rest in peace, dear Adobo Stephen
