A House Without A Door

Recently I received word from my friend Mariana that she was requesting transportation to the hospital - both good news and bad news.  The good news was that she chose not to use the traditional medicine in spite of her husband's history with witch doctors. The bad news was that it meant she was not getting better.  Last year Mariana taught a class for me in crochet for a couple of months to other women in Project Life.  I would peek in on them during one of the classes and see several women laughing and talking while creating something intricate and beautiful.  It was such a "normal" scene to my senses.  But these women were anything but normal. Each one had the AIDS virus knocking at her door.

The last time I saw Mariana she was so ill that I wondered if I would see her again.  But as I arrived her emaciated form sat patiently waiting for me outside her home.  She cautiously got up from her chair and collapsed before I could intervene. Gathering her in my arms I wasted no time taking her to the hospital, only to find a huge crowd congregating in our pathway. Patients, hospital workers and nurses were being entertained with loud drums and dancing out in the hospital's courtyard. A group from Maputo was performing an AIDS awareness program that everyone was required to watch. I took Mariana to the empty hospital waiting room and returned to the ongoing commotion. After performing a few traditional dances to the beating of loud drums, they used their theatrics to impart the important message of AIDS prevention.  I appreciated their realistic and honest scenarios of why the AIDS virus spreads so quickly in Mozambique.  A phrase they used really caught my attention, "Having AIDS is like having a house without a door." What a great visual of opportunistic diseases entering an immune-deficient body. 

There are millions who suffer around the world with a "house without a door."  It is comforting to know that love still has the last word. God is knocking at the door of many hearts and like Mariana, many are finding Him.

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Looking in another door - the Green Door dedicated João Mubata's cement block house this last week.  João is a church plant leader from Monte Xiluva.  He and his wife Luisa have four children: Ruth, Miriam, Noemia, and Gerson.