three in one.

You give and take away

Three deaths in one week. All of them HIV/AIDS related deaths and all too young to die. A situation all too familiar here. The rule, not the exception. Today was the most recent death and in response to the news, the youth pastor’s words were, “You see. It never ends. We are doing this every weekend.”

Its true.

Since I’ve been here there have already been five deaths. That averages a death a week, and that’s only the people we directly help. Every day of the week Walk in the Light takes people from the township in to the local clinic and the hospital if they don’t have money for other transport or if they are too sick and need help getting in the car. Some of them get better with treatment and then we just watch some of them slowly deteriorate. After the news of Begamusi’s death today we went to his house to sing and pray with his family. His mother sat on the ground wrapped in a blanket weeping. This is the reality here and most people are numb to it. This week we took 2 children under the age of 5 to the ARV (Anti RetroViral) clinic for HIV treatment. The life expectancy of a child born with HIV is age 12. The week before we arrived, Walk in the Light was helping with a funeral when the funeral home lost the woman’s body. The funeral was cancelled and the family, consisting of her two young sons, was sent home with a refund of their money.

Its real life, it isn’t those infomercials with the sad music in the background and the cute starving kids. In the township of Haniville alone, children are born with HIV, orphaned by HIV/AIDS related deaths, and raped by HIV positive men on a daily basis. It’s right in front of me. I hear the first hand accounts and see the effects of it. There is no sugar coating. Its real life and whether or not you want to believe it it’s happening.

I don’t think that guilt is the proper response. I think sorrow is expected and empathy is called for. I know the problem is overwhelming. It is. It’s huge and it feels HOPELESS. But the God that I worship is bigger, stronger, and greater than any problem our broken world faces. And He has called us be his hands and feet, to show his love to the broken, the hungry, and the sick in this world. I know this isn’t the only big problem our humanity faces, but it’s the problem that keeps slapping me in the face and it’s the problem I wake up to everyday. So please pay attention to what is happening. Please pray.