Part of our ministry this month included a trip to a village called Gairo. We were supposed to stay 5 days there, but this is the World Race, and things get changed around a lot, so our trip was shortened to just one night. And because of that, our time spent in Gairo was jam-packed with activities.
It started early on Friday morning, with a two-hour Dala-Dala (Swahili for local CROWDED transport) ride from Morogoro to Gairo. We were then given the grand run-down of the Bethel Orphans Support Centre, the organization our host, Simon Chacha, began and runs.
Very quickly we were ushered over to the church where 15 HIV+ women and even some of their HIV+ children were waiting to share their stories with us. Most were widows, some were still married. There was even a family where all the members were HIV+. Here’s the thing though. If I had seen any of them on the street I never would have tagged them as having AIDS. They all looked perfectly healthy, thanks to the ARV medicine they receive. ARV’s do wonders. As long as these people take them, they can live relatively normal lives. And these women are among the ones that take care of themselves and their families. Even though they feel healthy, they continue to take the drugs. Many families that deal with these issues on their own stop taking the medicine the minute they feel better, not knowing that it must be continued throughout the rest of their lives unless they want to fall sick again. With no accountability and no support from anyone, many families go in and out of cycles, taking medicine, not taking medicine. But for these women, this group has been lifesaving.
Technically, they are all in the same boat. They understand each other. They know what they each need. And they can encourage each other in ways no one else outside of this situation could. These support groups allow the women to be educated about their situations, know how to help themselves and how to help others. And when they are all relatively healthy like this, they can reach out to others in the same situations.
After meeting with the women, we ate a quick lunch before driving to the small church that our pastor in Morogoro started and used to pastor for 15 years. We met with several families there and then were ferried over to the church to meet with the congregation. As we pulled up in the cars, we were met by hundreds of faces. There were many kids as well as adults all crowded around 6 plastic chairs and a small table set out for us to use. With no previous planning for this, our team fell back on an old favorite; acting out the Good Samaritan and sharing a short devotional based on that story.
On our way back to Pastor Chacha’s home, we stopped at several different homes of the orphans that the Bethel Centre supports. It was incredible to see where these kids actually live. Some live in single parent homes, and some live with aunts, uncles or other family members because both their parents are gone.
By this point, we were all exhausted, and after eating a fabulous dinner and talking with the Chacha family, we all crashed in bed.
Saturday morning was reserved for meeting with all of the 184 orphans that Bethel supports. These were incredible kids. We heard about the history of the place and sang several songs with them before being given a chance to just play soccer and sit with them. Every single child was precious and along with meeting all of them it was a joy to meet the staff that spend their time pouring into these kids.
We ate lunch with several other missionaries that had come up from Dar es Salaam and then boarded another crowded Dala-Dala for the two hour ride back to Morogoro. It has been a long time since our team was dragged around that much, saying hi to various people, singing songs with children or sharing short devotionals for groups that had gathered to see us. By the end, we honestly felt like rag dolls that had been tossed around. But I’d be a rag doll for Jesus any day.
