Sam Simpson- Aids Hospital

I was planning on writing about seeing Andres at the malnutrition center for the third time, but I had an experience today that was life changing. This was the 3rd time that I went to the Aids hospital and I never really felt a connection with anyone there until today. We got there, had a tour and orientation of the facility. There's an area for the 70 children and there is an area for the sick adults. The youngest kid was a newborn and the oldest was 19. I could not imagine living in that place for 19 years. As we went to a quad area waiting for the kids to come in I had no clue what God had in store for me. As the kids started piling in I was telling the kids hola giving them high fives etc. Then a small boy named Rafiel came in, and he didn't say hola back but looked straight at me and signaled for me to hold him. I picked him up, but he would never talk back to me. If I would try to put him down he would just raise his arms for me to hold him. In other words he was always in my arms. I was shocked because he would never reply to me but he would always want me to hold him. I went and sat on the couch and he curled up in my lap and just rested on my shoulder. I then signaled the employee there who spoke decent English to come over. I asked him why he wouldn't speak and I wanted to hear his story. He told me his mother passed away less than a month ago and that he had 5 brothers. I asked if he truly was HIV positive. He said yes he was but his brothers were not. It broke my heart to hear that his brothers could not take care of him because of this. After that conversation I asked The Lord to show me a sign that Rafiel could hear me. Within 10 minutes I told him that he was special and he shook his head. After that moment he wanted to play more games and he would respond to me. He would even let me put him down so that we could play games with each other. It hit me that God heard my prayer and that he showed me hope in this beautiful child and it broke my heart for Rafiel even more. Having to tell him bye and telling him I love him was a very hard thing to do. My prayer for him is that his brothers will not grow weary on coming and visiting him and that he will learn that God has a purpose for him even though he has a horrible disease.

Sam Simpson



Pictures are from the aids hospital, and the malnutrition center.