is worse than you can imagine.
On our trip to Swaziland we were able to visit the Manzini hospital. When I walked into the children’s ward, it was more than intimidating. The room was filled with mothers who had made the hospital floor their home for the last several months. They had bonded, laughed, cried, and dreamt of leaving the hospital to go home with their child. Most of them could not go home because they had no transportation and their homes were too far away. So they slept there, under those conditions, day after day.
It was there that I met a mother named Eunice and her 2 year old boy named Nthando. I noticed her first because I heard her speaking in broken English. I decided to initiate conversation with her and she began to open up to me about her life. Within minutes her story became a part of my story. She had been in the hospital for over 2 months. Her son Nthando was diagnosed with HIV. There was nothing more they could do for Nthando, but he had to be 8 kilograms before he could be released from the hospital. When I met him, he was 7.5 kilograms. Eunice had been waiting for a while now for Nthando to gain some weight.
Eunice and I began to talk about life, marriage, jobs, dreams, faith, and Jesus. She said she believed in Jesus but that she had fallen away recently because life had been hard. She told me how she felt like it was her fault that her son had HIV. Perhaps it was a punishment towards her for not following God. I gave her a Bible and began to read the story about the blind man in John chaper 9. My favorite line is “…neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the glory of God will be shown”. I talked to Eunice about how the HIV was not her fault and that Jesus loves her and Nthando a lot. Her countenance started to change as she began to understand God’s love and forgiveness for her.
I could tell Eunice desperately wanted to leave the hospital and go home. I asked her what needed to happen for her to be discharged. She told me that Nthando had to weigh 8 kilograms and she had to have 200 Rand ($30). After a few hours with Eunice I prayed with her. I prayed that Nthando would gain the weight and that she would be released from the hospital that very same week. I told her that if she was discharged, to call me and I would come help her with the finances.
The day before I left Swaziland, about 3 days after I met and prayed for Eunice, she called me. Nthando had reached his weight and the doctor had discharged her. She was ready to go home. Except I had to fulfill my promise – to help her financially. So I drove back to the hospital, sat in the accounting room, blessed her with 200 Rand, and rejoiced with her that she could now go home. She began to cry and dance and thanked me over and over. Her emotions were bursting with joy, but you could tell that she was trying to keep them in. The best part was her continual exclamation, “Jesus is real, prayer is real, God is good!”. God had come through and answered our prayers. Her faith was increased and so was mine.
That was the last time I saw Eunice and may not ever see her again, but I trust that God used that moment in time to connect two women, both just as broken as the other, to bless each other.
Please pray for Eunice and Nthando. Pray that Eunice is home, healthy, and making strong choices to follow the Lord. Pray that Nthando is healed of his HIV and that he will grow up to be a man of God. Pray that our lives and their lives will continue to intersect for the glory of God.
