Yesterday, we went on house visits in the morning, and they left me in an overwhelmed state of mind. Here’s why:
House one.
A widowed mother of five lives here with her children and her brother. She has no skills she could use to get a job, but somehow she manages to feed her family. Her brother’s wife recently divorced him because she found out he has HIV. He showed up at his sister’s doorstep because he had nowhere else to go and he needed someone to take care of him. He is no longer able to work or see his children.
House two.
A couple and their six children live in a two room house that is not their own. The owner could come back any day and they would have nowhere to go. Both the mother and the father lost their parents at a young age, so they would have no one to take them in. Also, the mother, father, and oldest child have HIV. For the parents, it has already progressed to a point where they are too weak to work, and they can only provide food for their children if the community around them is gracious enough to share.
House three.
A widowed mother of six and her children live here. She and all the children have HIV. When her husband died seven months ago, his family took their house and everything they had. The house they live in is not their own, and they have no way of making money. The new school year is coming up, and they have no way to pay tuition.
A cycle has formed in this community, a cycle that is overwhelming to think about. I have known about the AIDS epidemic in Africa for quite a long time, but things change when the “epidemic” becomes mothers, fathers and children. Things change when “infected people” have names, faces and stories. Sitting in these houses with these people makes me wish that I had a way to break this cycle.
It was really hard to sit in those houses and only be able to offer my words to those people. It just didn’t seem like enough to open up my Bible and read them a scripture. I didn’t feel like my prayers brought much comfort. Encouraging words didn’t put food on their tables. I could not take their problems away, I could only sit with them and say that God is with them every step of the way, and sometimes, its very hard not to feel like that just isn’t enough.
