Growing up, HIV/AIDS was not something that i heard of much and the extent of my knowledge of it was on a Michael Jordan movie when Magic Johnson announced that he had it and was retiring. I assumed it must be a terrible disease and affected many around the world, just not anywhere close to my circle of life. Even throughout high school, i don’t recall much being taught about it so i basically just put it in the back of my mind.
Lets fast forward several years and now i am on the Race having completed around 8 1/2 months through Latin America and not once has HIV/AIDS come up. Until about 4 days ago we were meeting with a church we had come across and they gave us a short presentation of what all they do and are involved in. During this video, there were many pictures of complete families that were infected with this horrible disease. I have to be honest, i was a little caught off guard due to the lack of being exposed to it this year. The thing that struck me though was the smiles on their faces even in the midst of destruction. They didn’t let their circumstances define the way they live their life.
As you maybe have guessed, some of these families couldn’t escape death taking one or more members. The majority of them were the mother and father losing their battle and now the kids are left to raise themselves in extreme poverty. But still, the kids persevered. They looked to Jesus for their Hope. In particular there was one of the older boys of the family that was working towards being a leader in the church now despite having no parents. What an inspiring story.
Now i know that most of us may never experience this disease in our lives but that doesn’t mean we won’t still experience some form of a “disease”, it just may look a little different. Lets not be defined by that circumstance and persevere as these kids have and show others that there is still Hope in Jesus even when it feels like there is none.
