Job

There are so many sick and suffering people I have come across in my time here. Most of them even in their strength, show so much desperation and pain. But I want to tell you about a man I met that changed my life. As we were visiting house after house of so many families affected by Aids, I walked up to a man with his back facing me. He was sitting in a chair with his shirt off because it was so unbelievably hot out. As I came up to the side of him, the first thing I saw was his body. It looked like a corpse. He was completely bones and skin. I purposely am changing the phrase "skin and bones" to "bones and skin" to emphasize that its not a phrase of him being skinny... you could literally see his bones coming out of his skin. This picture shows you.

But, the minute I looked at his face..my mind flipped from "He looks dead" to "He looks alive". His face was so alive! We made eye contact and He smiled so gracefully and looked thrilled to have visitors. I could tell in that moment that not only his mind was sharp, but that He knew the Lord. There is no way someone that sick with HIV could be as happy as he was...and quite honestly, could be alive. He was kind of mesmerizing. I just kept watching him and He looked so peaceful. He started talking to us about his life. And started out by saying, "God will heal me"... Then he told us about how sick he is, how he doesn't have strength to work, how his wife thinks he is crazy for loving God so she left him, how his kids are all gone, he doesn't have food, medicine, or clean water....He has nothing except for a small hut to live in, a couple of shirts, and a friend from the village who cares for him. But He didn't seem to mind. He had the presence of God with him. How could he have so much faith in God's healing power when everything has been taken from him?

Then he went into the story of Job from the Bible. He talked about how his life is similar to Job's. He had everything taken from him and is so sick that he can't do anything for himself, but He still praises the Lord. He knows God is there and he worships and loves him regardless of what his circumstances are. When another thing is trampling on his life, he faithfully gives the situation to God and praises Him over and over. (Later when I got back to my house, I read Job and had chills with how similar the two stories were). The whole time he was talking, he was so confident and capturing. And he was looking directly at me a lot of time, probably because I had a waterfall of tears running down my face because he was so moving and...rare. I kept thinking of how often I get mad at God when something doesn't go the way I want it to, or when I get really sick in a time that I can't lay in my bed and recover. That's NOTHING compared to what this man deals with on a day to day basis....and He worships the Lord like no one I've ever seen. Honestly, my words in this story don't even do it justice. Even as I'm writing this, it doesn't feel complete..... bc it's hard to describe in words. He loves God and believes He can heal him....and you can see it all over his face. When you look at a man as sick as him, you expect to see hopelessness. But this man, Fabiao (that I now call Job), has peace and joy in his face that is so contagious. I don't know if I will ever see him again on this earth, but I can't wait to see him completely healed and rejoicing in Heaven. I feel completely honored and transformed from having met him...and I told him just that. I've never seen an old man smile as big as he did in that moment. I LOVE him. I'm praying I never forget how faithful he was and that I can adopt, absorb, embed in me, and live out that kind of faith.

HIV Story

Today is HIV/aids Awareness Day. I have had the privilege to go into homes in Mozambique and hear the stories of God’s people that are suffering from this disease. I want to share a story with you.

This story is about a woman named Laura. But the story isn’t about just her… it is about every person in her family, and about how many stories like this there are in the world. I like to think that I can control moments of tears in myself…but when something moves you like this, you can’t control it. I went into Laura’s home with the knowledge that she was sick and we were helping her. Little did I know how impacted I would be.

We walked into Laura’s home and saw her, a man, and two small children. I watched Laura look at us, and then with everything in her try and stand to greet us. But as I kept watching until she was almost standing, I watch her collapse to the ground. I didn’t know I could begin to cry as quickly as I did. She couldn’t stand. She laid there a second with her face down almost ashamed of herself, and then tried again. This time we helped her. They gave her a cane and she slowly walked over to the place where we would be sitting. But she wasn’t walking normally. Her feet were severely crippled so she walked on the sides of her feet and I she clearly had little muscle in her leg so I was ready to catch her at any moment. I couldn’t understand why we didn’t just sit where she already was, or why we didn’t carry her… maybe it was her dignity.. I don’t know. But once she got there, she fell back down in exhaustion and looked up at me with a face I’ll never forget. A face of desperation, and no hope. I tried so hard to keep from crying because I wanted to be strong for her. I wanted her to find hope and not see someone crying for her and think, “Yes, I’m dying”. But I couldn’t. I just cried… managing to hold in my sobs at least. The worst part was that she was crying too. I was watching this horribly sick woman cry.

            We all sat there and then they began to tell me her story. Laura is HIV positive. Her husband is also HIV positive. He is in better condition than she is so he is in charge of getting water. That is about all he can manage. He can’t really care for Laura. So, her sister gave them her 10 year-old daughter to take care of them. She’s 10. And she’s small. She was given away by her parents to go live with her aunt and uncle not to be cared for, but to care FOR them. She does everything. I then learned that the younger child who was 3 years old was living with them as well. This was Laura’s brother’s little girl. He left her with them because he killed his wife and had to run away from the police. So this precious little 3 year old girl who I never once saw smile, is an orphan that lives with her dying aunt and uncle and is taken care of by her 10 year old cousin. They then said that it was a blessing because in a few years she can help take care of them as well. I’m quite certain she already does. It’s heartbreaking.

            Thankfully, Laura and her husband are some of the many HIV positive patients in our “Sustainable Home Based Care” Program that are receiving a local Mozambican volunteer that helps care for them, give them ART, other medication, takes them to the hospital, and provides food when necessary. I was told that she was much worse the first time they found Laura, and that she is gradually feeling and doing much better. She has a long way to go but we are helping her, her husband, and those precious kids as best we can.

We were also able to give her hope by praying for her and telling her about hope in Jesus Christ. We told her that God was there, that He would never leave her, and that this world is broken and she is sick, but He gives hope. He gives healing and says if we believe He is the son of God and died in our place so we could know God personally, we will one day be able to live in heaven fully healed…for eternity. As we were telling her this (which I am pretty sure she already knew..but was being reminded) she had a flood of tears down her face. It was quiet for a second as she was crying and then she started to talk. She said she wasn’t crying anymore because of how sick she was or how much pain she was in. She was crying because she had hope in Jesus and knew that one day, she would be able to rest. She had hope. This woman had every right in my opinion to say “Don’t tell me about God…I’m sick and dying..He did this to me.” But she didn’t. She understood that this world is broken with sin and God is the one that can deliver us from that. She understood that He didn’t do that to her, He is the one that saves her. She found hope in Jesus. He might heal her on this earth, He might not. But one day He will. If not on earth, then in heaven.

There are so many stories like this I could share with you. There was another woman who was so sick and frail and her black skin was peeling off of her and turning white. Her son, who is 14, takes care of her and his other brothers. Her husband left her because she was sick. Not to get help, or for any other reason.. He left BECAUSE she was sick. I can’t imagine how that makes her feel. Completely worthless and unloved I am sure. They struggle finding food on a daily basis and the kids don’t have time to be in school because they are caring for their sick mother. She is in our program as well and we are doing our best to meet the needs of her and her family. We again shared hope with her and literally laid hands on her and prayed. It was such an honor to pray for this sick woman.

            These are God’s people. He loves them and knows them. I’m so glad I know them too. Because in knowing them, I can continually pray for them. I wanted to share this story with you in hopes that you all could be praying for them too. Not just this family, but all the families in the world suffering from HIV. We can’t all be there and we can’t do much to change situations, but we can pray. That’s such a powerful tool-prayer.

 

Laura and her family with their volunteer caretaker

 

The second family