Lawndale Christian Health Center is very close to my heart. In regards to the Pharmacy Department, I feel like a mother hen who has let the brood leave the nest. In reality, I was the one who flew the coop.
I left when Jason was called by St. Paul's Episcopal Church as their Curate (assistant minister). While I have been away, I have gained renewed love and fresh perspective for Lawndale's Pharmacy. I sometimes refer to myself as LCHC Pharmacy's head cheerleader. I have been able to work there as a temp a few times. If God brings us back to Chicago to live, I want to work there again on a permanent basis.
Jose was a pharmacy technician at Lawndale. I only had the opportunity to work with him two weeks this past summer and two weeks the summer before that. But I could tell that he was bright and was thrilled to learn that he was considering becoming a pharmacist. He was a big teddy bear of a guy with a wonderful dimple filled smile.
When I heard that Jose had been gunned down in front of his house. To say that I was shocked, is an understatement. He was such a gentle person and for him to die such a violent death was difficult to register. The night that I had heard, I had difficult sleep. The next morning, I walked around my flat like a zombie. We had plans with friends in the afternoon and evening which helped get me out of my daze.
As I thought about it more and more, I am not sad for Jose. He is in God's hands, which is the safest place in the world. The reality of it is that those who killed Jose do not have the last word on his life, God does. The death and resurrection of Jesus defeated death. And it has no power over the saints of God.
I am however sad for my brood. We have lost a dear, dear brother. And if I feel as sad as I do, I can't even imagine how those who worked with him everyday are feeling. A pharmacy is a small, intimate work space. You develop a rhythm and if someone is missing, you get off beat easily. I want to gather each of them, Sara, Esther, Alissa, Tahonda, Blanca, Luis, Adelaida, and Lyn, into my arms and tell them how much I love them. I want to tell them how proud of them I am. I want to tell them how proud I am of Jose and his work among them.
But I am on the other side of the world from them. Plus, words fail to truly capture how I feel. I long to be with them. I am now sitting in a statistically much safer city than Chicago*, but my heart longs to be in that place where Jose died and to defiantly say to evil, death, and violence, "Ha! You have lost!"
God is ushering in a kingdom.
1.Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4. he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5.And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6.Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. 7.Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.
9.Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." 10.And in the spirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. 11.It has the glory of God and a radiance like a very rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.
22. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25. Its gates will never be shut by day-- and there will be no night there.
26. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
Revelation 21 (selected verses, emphasis mine)
See you there Jose!
*Jason blogged about this recently see http://gowerstreet.blogspot.com/2006/10/violence-and-identity-and-america-e.html
To find out more about Lawndale Christian Health Center visit www.lawndale.org
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