{"id":401,"date":"2007-11-12T20:10:43","date_gmt":"2007-11-12T20:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2007\/11\/real-life-wave.html"},"modified":"2007-11-12T20:10:43","modified_gmt":"2007-11-12T20:10:43","slug":"real-life-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2007\/11\/real-life-wave.html","title":{"rendered":"Real Life Wave of Sorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of the saddest things I’ve heard in some time. Thanks to my friend, Hannu for this story.<\/a>  My last post<\/a> talked about the tragedy many people experience who live in extreme poverty. This is real life for a young mother infected with HIV:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least I held and loved her
\nonce\u201d<\/span><\/strong>
Little Esther did not have the chance to
\ngrow up. She had already been underweight for a long time. Even though she was a
\nyear and 2 months old, she weighed about half of what was normal for her age. We
\nheard from her grandmother, Paskalina that Esther had been sick for one week.
\nShe refused to eat. We also heard that her mother Molly had given birth this
\nweek to a boy child. We were concerned of this young mother, her sick child and
\nof the newborn baby. Molly is HIV+ and last time we saw her, she had lost a lot
\nof weight.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the afternoon we received a telephone call
\ninforming us that Esther had passed away. We did not make in time to help her. My assistant, Rian
\nsaid \u201cAt least I held and loved her once.\u201d Esther\u2019s mother, Molly is one of our
\nladies that makes beads. Last time Molly came to sell the beads she had made,
\nshe came carrying Esther on her back. When Rian had seen them, she felt that she
\nhad to treat Esther especially well. She had seemed so weak and pitiful. Rian
\nhad carried Esther around for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

She was given medicine but it was too late, nothing
\ncould be done any longer. On the way home from the doctor, the grandmother realized that her
\ngrandchild had died in her arms as they waited for their scooter ride. She
\nbravely rode silently home with the deceased Esther in her arms. The driver
\nwould not have given a ride if he had known that the child had
\ndied.<\/span><\/p>\n

That week two visitors had visited in that
\nsmall room: life and death. There with the assistance of her mother, Molly had
\ngiven birth to a boy child. Now she was sitting on the floor beside the lifeless
\nbody of Esther. As we drove home, I was thinking how could we have helped. Molly
\nneeds besides nutritious food, people around her who love and care for her and
\nthe whole family. She needs God, who is full of grace and
\nloving.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGod is in the slums
In the cardboard boxes
Where the poor play
\nhouse
God is in the silence of a
\nmother
Who has infected her child with a
\nvirus
That will end both of their
\nlives<\/span>
God is in the cries
Heard under the rubble of
\nwar
God is in the debris of wasted opportunity
\nand lives
God is with us
If we are with them.\u201d (Bono) <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Uganda2\"<\/a> \"Uganda1_2\"<\/a>
\n
<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Uganda4\"<\/a>
\n
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of the saddest things I’ve heard in some time. Thanks to my friend, Hannu for this story.  My last post talked about the tragedy many people experience who live in extreme poverty. This is real life for a young mother infected with HIV: \u201cAt least I held and loved her once\u201dLittle Esther…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nReal Life Wave of Sorrow - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2007\/11\/real-life-wave.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Life Wave of Sorrow - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is one of the saddest things I’ve heard in some time. Thanks to my friend, Hannu for this story.  My last post talked about the tragedy many people experience who live in extreme poverty. This is real life for a young mother infected with HIV: \u201cAt least I held and loved her once\u201dLittle Esther…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2007\/11\/real-life-wave.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-12T20:10:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/tomdavis.typepad.com\/tom_daviss_blog\/images\/2007\/11\/12\/uganda2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Real Life Wave of Sorrow - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2007\/11\/real-life-wave.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Real Life Wave of Sorrow - Red Letters","og_description":"This is one of the saddest things I’ve heard in some time. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}