BBB trip to Cedars (Afkah), Steve is first on the left standing,

Neshan is first in the left back.

Cedars trip of BBB, Steve is first on the right back, Laban's Spring and the Hanged Natural Bridge behind

                                                             Demise Yet Hope

The crisis came suddenly. If anyone had asked about his health few days before July, Steve would have replied, "I don't feel the best, but overall I'm still pretty good young boy." Apart from his desire for siesta and desiccated emotions, he seemed to be in reasonably good health for a boy of fifteen years old. During his whole three years in our boarding school he had almost never seen a doctor, and his one visit to hospital was brief (to remove the pus from infected acne in his nose).

All these changed quickly. After two weeks form his arrival to Kessab his home in Syria at the end of the school year, he found himself pale and dizzy. His family thought he should lay down, and take some vitamins as the doctor in Kessab looked at his face and advised.

At the end of August, things became worse; Steve was not able to urinate. The doctor said that Steve needs a blood test. But the nearest laboratory was far sixty km from Kessab (Lattakia), and they had to wait to the next day for results. While the family was working for that, his condition didn't sound very encouraging, his kidneys began to fail, and his strength and energy waned. For four days they were struggling to save him by medication.

To the surprise of many, his blood pressure was suddenly felt down, and his doctor couldn't raise it. Till they arrived to Lattakia's hospital, Steve was no longer with them. It was too late to do something for him. That was on the 8^th of September. The shock was so deep and heavy on his family and all his friends; especially on his poor grandmother, who couldn’t bear it and the whole world stopped the day he died; she didn't open her eyes in the next day.

Steve was a quiet boy, peaceful and silent. I can say he had no trouble with any boy neither in building nor in school. That what made the grief stronger on his family and friends (with respect to all rouse boys and girls). Valuable person and beloved one has been passed away.

To say the truth, we cannot make death into something beautiful. As Christians we take comfort in the certainty of resurrection, but this does not remove the emptiness and pain of being forced to let go of someone we love. When we encounter death, we face an irreversible, unalterable situation that we are powerless to change. However, for Christians death is not the end of existence; it is the beginning of life eternal. There is hope despite pain and death. Now Steve's brother, Neshan who is also a boarder student here, is continuing the way to reach his brother's dreams: to have better life and education, and more to carry his brother's good spirit.

Nabil Maamarbashi
               Oct. 2003, Anjar