Pray for Our Garbage Collector

Our garbage collector drives a side-loading collection vehicle that's a bit like this one. It's a really cool truck with these big mechanical arms that pick up the trash can and shake the trash into the truck. I love watching the trash truck.

Our garbage collector's name is Ismael. He has been a Christian for nearly 7 years and he prays for the people in the neighborhood as he drives his route. And he is grieving today, so please pray for him.

We moved into our home 4 years ago and that's when I met Ismael for the first time. He was willing to take a few extra boxes of stuff left by the previous owners and I was so thankful. We usually chat a little bit when we see one another, but lately that's only been once in a while.

Ismael usually runs his route through our neighborhood on Mondays. Monday is now my usual day off, so as I was running up to the school to pick up Anna & Sophie this afternoon, I saw Ismael coming down my street.

Honestly, I didn't expect him to stop and get out of the truck when I waved at him. And I didn't expect to see his eyes red from bloodshot like they were. I instantly knew something was terribly wrong and asked him what was up. And this is what he told me: "My wife died 3 months ago this coming Thursday."

His eyes were bloodshot because he had been crying and because he hasn't been sleeping well lately. Ismael's wife died from complications related to a long battle with fibromyalgia. She had endured extreme pain in recent years. Like me and Megan, Ismael and his wife have two little girls in elementary school.

I was able to talk and pray with Ismael for a while this afternoon as he took a break in the park just below the school near our house. He is a man who knows God through Jesus Christ, and he is holding on to God's promises in the Bible, but his heart is broken. He doesn't know how to answer his 8 year old daughter's questions like, "Daddy, why did God take away my Mommy and your wife?" He knows that God is good and sovereign and that as Christians we do not grieve without hope. But he looks tired and sad and he's doing his best to hold on.

Will you please pray for our garbage collector, my brother in Christ, Ismael? He's grieving today and he needs people like us to pray for him. Pray something like Romans 15:13, that the God of hope might fill him and his daughters with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, they may abound in hope.

If you do pray for Ismael, will you please post a short comment? I'm planning on seeing him again next Monday and stopping him to see how he's doing. I'd love to tell him that lots of my friends were praying for him too. Thanks.