Smiling Lady

We enter a dimly lit house that is one of the nicest we’ve visited since being in Swaziland.   We are on our second day of home visits and I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of it.  The Smiling Lady that greeted us at the door is not holding a beautiful baby.  We are directed into a rather large blue painted room, with only a bed.  At first awkwardness overcomes me because of the uncertainty of what awaits.  The Smiling Lady told us that the beautiful baby’s mother is very sick.  We asked if we could pray for her and were told to enter the house.  In a country that’s AIDS prevalence is about 55%, I thought I had a good picture of what I was going to see when I walked into the room.  A young lady, about twenty-five, lays on a small bed covered in blankets.  Her head is  all that shows of her small body.  I instantly catch her eyes, which are filled with an overwhelmingly large amount of pain.  The Smiling Lady tells us that she had been sick for the past thirteen months and recently stopped taking all medication because the family cannot afford it.  As I walk closer to the woman I see that her brown eyes look emotionless – glazed over and agonizing.   I now can see that this dieing lady has been reduced to nothing but bones.  Her arms and legs are no bigger that of a small child.  IN that moment it becomes hard for me to grasp what is going on – How can God allow an able mother to die without care?

We were allowed to pray over this woman, asking the Lord for healing.  During the prayer I was overcome with clarity.  I knew that the Lord was there, in the large blue painted room, with this dieing woman.  She was not dieing alone. 

Amongst all the pain and death that is in this country I know the Lord if working in these people.  I believe that as Shepard’s of the Lord, we are asked to take care of His sheep.  As many flocks of sheep throughout the world die of HIV/AIDS, there lives are being stolen.  The world is crying out for more Shepard’s to come help the Lords people. 

“May the Lord bless you with discomfort at easy answers,

half truths and superficial relationships, so that you may live 

deep within your heart.

May God bless you at anger, at injustice, oppression, and

exploitation of people so that you may work for justice,

freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears that shed for those who suffer

from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach

out your hand and comfort them so that their pain may be turned

to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you

can make a difference in this world so that you can do what others

claim cannot be done.”

-Franciscan Benedictin 

Peace and Love,

Ryan