From Katie (blog account won't work!)

With the JL Zwane Presbyterian Church we had the blessing of visiting folks whose lives had been affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Several of the folks had been struggling with HIV for years; one woman who shared her story with us had been living with it for nineteen years, and now she is faced with breast cancer on top of it all. The courage and strength we have seen here in these recent days has been simply extraordinary, and this strength has allowed people here to support on another in remarkable ways. One gogo (grandmother) we met was raising twelve children... Each time she saw a need, whether a child had been orphaned or was experiencing neglect in their home situation, she took them in. She told us that each time a new need was discovered she thought she could not do it, that she could not take another child in to her home, and then she said, "I heard their story, and I took them." She could not turn them away once she heard their stories, and knew she had to help them. What a beautiful example of the call we have been given as Christians! She is meeting the call, day in a day out, to feed and clothe and love those that the world could so easily push aside and forget. She has molded their stories into her own. Now, having seen all that we have seen and heard all that we have heard, we are part of their story too. What are we to do with that story? How are we to respond to the tales that we have now become a small part of? There is an extraordinary love in so much that we have witnessed here, and the struggle for us now becomes to figure out how we can best honor all that we have been blessed to hear, see, taste, touch, and experience. How will we honor their stories?