Meet Peter, an 18-year-old brother in Christ, who lost his mother to AIDS and is himself HIV+. I met him for the first time at Lira Referral Hospital with Sam, who was in a similar place as Peter just a few years ago. Peter’s family told him they would no longer support him because he was an adult. Without their support, he was left without a means to survive. Peter had stopped taking his medication and refused food. He had given up on life and essentially was left to die. Since then, Sam and a few of us have visited the hospital daily, bringing food and water and most importantly praying fervent healing prayers over him. We have seen significant improvements in his strength from being unable to sit up on his own to walking around the hospital grounds for short stints. Although he is still not eating very much, a combination of a lack of appetite and his stomach filling quickly, he is gaining some more strength and has fought off his cough and infection successfully. When I leave his bedside, I always remind him, “God is good.” 
Meet Sharon, Sam’s baby girl, who was born HIV+. She’s a cheerful little girl, who on first meeting us would not let go of Austin’s hand and crawled into his lap during a lunch hour church service. Sharon attends school in the morning and spends most of her afternoons at church, where both of her parents serve. She is all smiles and delights in any human contact. Although she cannot communicate verbally with us because she only speaks Lango, she enjoys playing with us in the church courtyard and helps her mom in the kitchen. Sam prays over his little girl every day for complete healing so she doesn’t have to suffer the things he has endured with his HIV+ status. Education on HIV and AIDS is still rather limited and many with HIV/AIDS suffer significant stigma and hopelessness.
Meet Julia, a 17-year-old sister in Christ, who was orphaned by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) several years ago. After her parents were murdered by the LRA, she was taken into the bush for 2 months and trained by the LRA. However, on a mission one night, she ran away from the LRA, escaping under cover of the mission. She and her four siblings are currently raised by extended family and friends in the local village. While Julia only has a P7 (equivalent of grade 7) education, she aspires to be a recording gospel artist. It is highly unlikely for Julia to have an opportunity to complete her education because of the lack of school fees and any assistance provided goes to her younger siblings’ school fees rather than hers. Julia found Jesus one night when she was desperate and walked into a local church for prayers and support. Since then, she has been faithfully trusting the Lord will provide for her every need.
Lately, I’ve been challenged to consider if I would stand in the gap asking the Lord to take the burden of someone else, Peter, Sharon, or Julia, and lay it on me to relieve their burden? If I would exchange places to take on the suffering of someone else upon myself so that they can experience relief? How deep and wide is my love for these people? “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends” John 15:13. This is exactly what Christ did for me when He died upon the cross, taking upon himself my burden of wrongdoings and the consequences of my wrongs. He willingly took my place because that’s how much he loved me that He would take my place and sacrificed himself. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” 1 John 4:10-11. Do we love with the depth of Christ’s love for all people? Are we willing to trade places like Christ did for us? Are we willing to love sacrificially?
