Death is so final.  In the U.S.  In Africa.  Wherever, whoever, whatever age you are.  There is no going back and having a second chance at life.

We just received word that a Cameroonian man whom we know has died.  He will be buried this Saturday out in his village.  He worked for our former mission for ten years.  I was his last boss.  Sadly, it was discovered that he had been stealing from the mission for many years.  One of my first jobs when we arrived out here in 1991 was to participate in an investigation into this suspected theft.  Another lady and I did all the research and unearthed the fact that he had stolen a great deal during the last five years of his employment with the mission.  We were too sickened to dig through the records of his first five years.  We didn't want to know. As his direct supervisor I was part of the group of six who had to confront him with all that we had uncovered.  He declared that "the Judgment Seat of Christ will reveal my innocence."  And yet his guilt was all there in black and white.  He had to go.  

It was a dreadful way to begin working in a new country.  While not new to missions, we were new to Cameroon.  The better part of six months later, with the coaching of another, this man wrote a letter to the mission detailing all that he had stolen.  Amazingly he confessed to everything we had uncovered.  His motives were not pure however.  He had mistakenly been told that the mission would certainly hire him back if he were to "tell all".  This did not happen.

Fast forward to 2018...27 years later.  Sadly his life ended without his ever coming to know our Lord and Master.   How tragic.  For him Eternity in Hell has already begun.  There is no going back and having a second chance to accept our Savior.  Death is so final.  And we ache all over when we think of him.