As tears roll down his face, I sit there helpless, his mother in the other room with a few hours left to live. Only 30 years old, with three young children, and there she lay dying of HIV. Her brother fills is in on the details: they took her to the hospital earlier that week, but after several days there was nothing more the doctors could do, so they sent her back home.
That was my first time being close to someone with HIV. I’ve seen it on infomercials about helping those in Africa, but to be up-close and personal is a different experience. Your heart aches for them; to see them in such pain, body barely hanging on to the bones, and too weak to move. Yes, HIV is real and active, a big problem here in Masaka. Our pastor said there are many people with HIV, and some of the children at his school have contracted the virus from their parents. We don’t hear too much about it back in the states, but it does exist.
What can we do but sit there and pray. Michael, 13-years-old, already lost his father to HIV when he was 4 months old and now he is losing his mother right before his eyes. What things are going through this kid’s mind? And what can we say to a young boy to comfort him, give him hope, and show him love? I just wanted to hug him and reassure him that everything would be all right. But wouldn’t he believe me. I am a black Munzugo, so in his eyes I have everything imaginable; I’m not in his position to tell him everything will be okay. That was the first lie Satan tried to whisper in my ear to silence me, “you have nothing you can offer this boy but false hope”. No, this boy does have hope and a future that no one can take away from him, not even death. He has hope in the Lord.
We often ask God why things like this happen. We look at things we experience, see, or hear and ask God, why? Why did this have to happen in our life and why is Michael going through all this? Thirteen-years-old, lost both parents to HIV, now living with his uncle, trying to help take care of his younger siblings, how do you give someone hope, who doesn’t even know what hope is? You introduce him to the Man who can be his mother, father, and everything else he needs in his life. Our hope and love rest in the palm of the Lord. The one that gives life and the one that take it away, but only on the earth, not in the spirit.
Yes, we may not know what to do when others are going through hard times or what to say, the only thing we can do is pray, encourage, and speak the promises from God’s word. His word that brings life, and life more abundantly, that gives you fine instructions to get through anything we are going through in life. We often try to put words together to sound intelligent or wise, but when you come straight from the word, that is all you need. So, everyone please lift Michael up in your prayers, he is a very bright, strong young man, and God has great plans in store for him.
