Miracles

So, after an hour of trying to load the blogger site it finally came up.

Story time:

When I was here last August we visited a lady, her name is Bizu Allum. She is HIV positive and we have been helping her for about a year with such things as medicine, blood work, transportation to clinics and food. She was living in a home that wasn't more than 10 feet by 6 feet. There was a mound of mud on one side, this was her bed. She had a chair and a few odds and ends. Her son, who is now 6 years old, is also HIV positive and he lives at a hospital in Addis Ababa called Mother Teresa Hospital. It's a place where HIV patients can stay for free and recieve free medical care.
When we saw her in August she wept almost the entire time we were in her home. She was so sad about her son, her husband had passed away about a year before and she had no money for anything. She often went for a day or two without eating. The only time she was able to eat was when her neighbors would bring her some bread or other food. The biggest problem with this is that the HIV medication needs to be taken with food, otherwise it makes you rather sick (but still better than the alternative). So, she was quite sick and was sick quite often. It was a sad sight. All of us were moved to tears in the room. We talked to her, we told her that we loved her, that many people were praying for her and then we prayed for her. It broke my heart and I was never able to forget that time with her and I don't think that I ever will.
Today we visited her again. It was a miracle. She is healthy, her son is healthy, she was all smiles today. She even has a business selling injera (it's kind of like an Ethiopian flat bread, it's what they eat all of their food with). She has a new house now, it's much bigger and nicer than before. She gave us some injera to eat, we told her it was the best we ever had. She made coffee for us and it was wonderful. We smiled and laughed together. We told her that we were happy to see that she was so well, to hear that her som was doing better, that we never forgot her and always prayed for her. She was overjoyed. I count it as a miracle that everything is going so well for her and it gives me hope amidst all the sorrow in the world.


I have been thinking a lot the past few days about miracles and I truly believe that they are real. I feel like I am seeing them everyday in this village. People that would have otherwise been dead look as if they have no disease. People who were living in utter despair are now very happy. People who had no hope now have some. If these are not miracles, then what is a miracle?