Celestine: Dancing with Jesus

Children's smiles and innocent love for life often capture our hearts.  
Equally, when a young child dies, it hits our hearts to the core.

Christ’s Gift Academy 2nd Grader Celestine Atieno passed away on the morning of July 23rd, 2013.  She became very sick about three days prior with a high fever.  Her symptoms worsened to include diarrhea, vomiting and blood in her urine. The clinic diagnosed her with a very strong case of malaria and immediately referred her to Homa Bay District hospital (about 45 minutes away) for a blood transfusion because she had lost so much blood. After the transfusion, she appeared to be getting better on Monday night, and even started singing and laughing.   Unfortunately, her condition quickly changed, and all of a sudden the next morning she died. 

Celestine was born on February 7th, 2005 as the last child of her parents.  She became a total orphan when her parents passed away in 2009, within a month of each other.  Her Aunt and Uncle took up the responsibility of raising Celestine and her older sister Faustine, who was in the same class as her.   She was an outgoing child with leadership characteristics.  Academically, she was among the top 5 students in her competitive class.

All of the CGA students and staff will be attending the funeral and burial on Tuesday, July 30th which will take place in her home near the Kombe marketplace; 1.5 miles from Mbita town. 

Her personality really blossomed under the love of Jesus at CGA.  She will be dearly missed by her entire CGA family.   

PLEASE PRAY for the CGA students and staff, and Celestine’s family as they mourn the loss of their special little girl.  Please especially pray for Faustine.  Celestine was not just her younger sister, but also her best friend and confidant.  They walked to school together every day, were in class together, played together, did their homework together and were pretty much inseparable. 

We were blessed with the opportunity to assist Celestine's family by using our vehicle to drive the family to the mortuary in Homa Bay to bring her body back home to Mbita.  Faustine traveled with us, along with 4 aunts and Lillian, our CGA Social Worker.  We did our best to comfort Faustine and occasionally saw her smile as she enjoyed sitting in the front seat with us and experiencing power windows and air condition!  She's a quiet girl with a sweet demeanor.  As we left her house this afternoon, I (Daneen) reminded her that when she's feeling sad, she can just think about Celestine dancing with Jesus!