How to love someone with AIDS

We can understand why people fear AIDS – it’s communicable and deadly. But God loves the world, those with AIDS included. It’s a crime to shun what God so desperately loves. We are his agents for communicating that love.

That’s why I love stories of people who face into their fear and reach out to those who others shun. Katey’s story of ministering to a young Swazi boy especially touched me:

“The last 2 days I was in Swaziland we had the opportunity to minister in the hospital. I met a 13-year-old boy who was dying of Aids. It is hard to put into words what I saw.

“The young boy looked as if he was 8 years old due to malnutrition. He was lying in a private room in a rusty bed with ants crawling around the walls. He had multiple infected scabs all over his body with thrush in his mouth.

“Both his Mom and Dad have died and he lies in the hospital everyday by himself with no visitors. He longs for the simple love of human touch. My heart was filled with the immense love he had to give.

“He expressed to me that his mom used to scratch his back and sing to him. As I sang to him and scratched his back he would hold my hand. He shared some of his past with me and I told him my testimony. Most of our time was spent with him sleeping with me sitting next to him holding his hand. But when he was awake my friends and I would perform fun songs for him or read from a book or the bible. As he slept we showered him in prayer.

“My mind and heart are reminded of him everyday. It broke my heart to leave him. As I walked out the door he turned to look at me and waved goodbye. He is in God’s hands and I know he will be provided for and loved fully and completely by God.”