Never the same again

Today was one of those days. You know those days that you have in your life when you know that you will never be the same again; where your perspective changes and you look at the world with a different eye. Throughout my short time here, there have been surreal moments where I feel like I am in a National Geographic magazine. The images and photographs from that magazine are forever imprinted in my memory and it is amazing that those are the people that I pass on the streets, in the villages, or even as I learned today in the hospital.

I think that I told you all about my friend Samueli. He is the wonderful boy that I built a friendship with while living with a missionary family. We had so much fun together playing cards, making faces, playing other games, and just being silly together. What is unique about this friendship for me is that he has stage three AIDS. The family has poured thier lives into this boy and has seen remarkable improvement. The power of love is so clearly evident in his life. While I was staying with him, he contracted malaria and we had to go to the clinic. He was getting better but the healing process is slow because of his immune system. I have not seem him in a while because I have moved farther away. I just recently found out that he has been in the hospital for a little over a week. I went today to visit him. Even though I traveled through some slum type areas to get to the hospital, the hospital was nice.

When I walked into his room that he shares with three others, I was immediately taken aback by how much weight he had lost and the change of the shape of his face. However, when we made eye contact, this huge smile engulfed his face and I just went over and hugged him. How can you be okay with someone dying that you love? I think I am learning that when we hurt we understand in an even deeper way that God is a God of love. God is there for me and He has not abandoned Samuel. He is always there. He never leaves nor forsakes us. Then, Samuel scooted over so that I could sit next to him on his bed and visit. We laughed and talked in broken Swahilingish. He is doing better. As I sat on his bed, I looked around to the other children and saw the suffering and anguish on their faces and tears sprung into my eyes. That is when I knew that I was never going to be the same again. How can I? All I wanted to do was hold each child and love them. How can you see that kind of suffering and not want to be a part of changing it? This is why I work with schools and communities and child sponsorship.