'Quiet Desperation' Thoreau Couldn't Have Imagined

Barb writes:

I heard a story last week that broke my heart. It comes out of Bangui, Central African Republic.

A gal came to my friend in Bangui for help with a medical problem. Her leg really hurt and she needed help. Going into the house the woman removed her wrap around skirt revealed, well, the cause of this poor woman's unimaginable pain. Multiple open sores ran down her leg. My friend wondered how this poor woman could still walk at all.

My friend started asking questions which eventually led to the Big Question: have you been tested for HIV. Yes, she had, but she didn't know the results. "Why," my friend asked? "Because I don't know how to read the paper with the results, and I don't have anyone I can trust enough to read it to me.

This story is too painful on so many levels. Here is a woman...

- living in unspeakable pain for months

- unable to read a paper containing life-changing medical information

- with no one she can trust enough to read the medical report

- living each day in fear of what the contents of that envelope mean for her life


This gal is now being cared for: medical examines, injections, medicines, and tests. Yes, she tested positive for HIV.

Sometimes we missionaries wonder what kind of difference we are making. One need only ask this poor woman what a difference my missionary friend is making for her. So far the medical bills in just two weeks has passed $100 and continues to mount. Eventually her costs for anti-retroviral drugs will cost just $5 per month.

All this has brought up the discussion, again, of what if anything God would have Project Hope & Charité do for HIV positive widow care providers of our orphans. It is impossible for us to do nothing, which is how we've gotten into this in the first place, but it is unnerving to think of starting something.

"Unnerving?" You ask. "Why?"

Well, imagine yourself standing next to a door at the bottom of a very tall dam. The noise of "many waters" are passing through the wall from the other side where millions of tons of water are pressing against the door. Over the door is a sign that says, "Open this door." This is, um, unnerving.

We WILL open this door, in God's good time, and after much prayer, preparation and research. But we already know that as soon as we touch the door knob and turn it just slightly, the door will burst open, and we will be flooded. Almost instantly we will be floating in a sea of needy people living in impossibly difficult and sad circumstances, people looking to us for help.

Please PRAY with us as we set up an initiative to help HIV-positive widow care-providers on a broader scale.