Death

These last two weeks it seems like death has been all around me.  I have had 2 patients that I visited die of AIDS.  My mothers good friend and a co-workers father also died. A fellow missionary was driving home and hit a young boy and he died later that day.  So as you can tell that is just a lot of deaths!  A couple of posts ago I wrote about Carrol being HIV positive and very sick.  She is one of the ones who died.  I think that when I got that news that was just the tip of the iceburg for me.  I could hardly stop crying.  Please pray for me because I’m so tired of seeing innocent people die. When I told Hannah about the woman dying and why I was crying, she said, “Well, Mama, do something about it. Don’t just cry!” Even though it makes me so sad every time I go out to visit patients and then later hearing that another one has died, I can’t stop going out. I feel compelled to keep going as hard as it is. They all deserve an opportunity to hear the gospel.

Prayer is so amazing! Like I said, when I got the news that Carrol died  it made me really upset.  I wasn't just crying because of this one woman but for the thousands in Africa who die everyday with AIDS and without hope. I texted Kevin about it and he told our friends he was with. When our house worker came in she could tell I was upset. I told her what happened and she took the time to listen to me. She hugged me, and spoke words of truth to me. As I cried, she stroked my hair. This was such a blessing to me and really ministered to me. A few min. later I got a text message from a friend at Kevin's meeting which said, "In my small group, I prayed that someone would listen and HUG you!" God is certainly amazing!

So that this post won't all be about death let me say something about two testimonies of life I heard this week.
1-Before Bible study as I was waiting on the women to come I had about 30 min. to chat with one of the caregivers.  She shared with me that she was a widow of 13 years.  Her husband had died of AIDS and left her and her children to take care of themselves.  He had gotten AIDS from being unfaithful to his wife.  His other partner had died about a year before he did.  She was heartbroken and knew that she probably had this disease too.  She figured she had about one more year to live and then she too would leave her children behind.  She went to the clinic and got tested and sure enough she was HIV positive.  They told her she could begin taking ARV's which she did.  She said she was very surprised when she didn't die the next  year.  She knew that God had saved her from dying and leaving her kids behind.  She decided to become a caregiver so she could encourage others to be tested and get on ARV's if they were positive.  She felt like once they heard her testimony that they would be encouraged to know that they can keep living for a long time if they take this medicine.  Now Mary's kids are grown and she is still doing well.

2-Only a couple of women were able to come to bible study so we decided to go and visit one of Mary's patients.  As we were on our way there Mary told us about this woman we were going to see.  She said she struggled with BP and that 2 1/2 weeks ago she fell and hit her head.  When she woke up she was in the hospital.  She couldn't move or talk.  This woman, Kristin, had just gotten home a couple of days before our visit.  So we were not expecting too much in way of a visit but felt like we should still go.  When we entered the house Kristin was sitting up on the couch.  She was able to talk a bit too!  She can move her arms now and her legs some but still not well enough to walk.  Mary was so surprised to see her doing so well.  Kristin just kept saying it was all God.  God had saved her from death for a reason.  We talked about that for a while and I encouraged her to do whatever it is that God had planned for her.  The three of us left very encouraged and praising Jesus too!